Trainer gored by elephant at Six Flags Marine World

Posted | Contributed by SFNE Freak

Patrick Chapple, 39, was standing next to 7,000-pound Misha, a 23-year-old female African elephant at Six Flags Marine World, at about 3:30 p.m. when the animal turned suddenly from grazing and knocked him to the ground. He subsequently had surgery and is expected to make a full recovery.

Read more from AP via The San Diego Union-Tribune.

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WOW... Was he knocked over, or was he gored, which implies impaled with a tusk? What are they going to do with Misha? Sadly, a lot of times they would destroy the animal if they thought it was unpredictable.

The article indicates that there was a penetrating wound to the abdomen. Working with animals this large is always dangerous. Even a playful poke from a 7000 pound animal can squash one of us like a bug. By the way, isn't 7000 pounds awfully heavy for a female elephant?

Seems big, almost double the size of Shouka.

I'm glad the guy is ok. What a horrible thing to happen and see. Something like that could scar kids for life.

Another article from the Vallejo paper:

http://www.timesheraldonline.com/articles/2004/06/02/news/news02.txt

*** This post was edited by GoliathKills 6/2/2004 2:14:00 PM ***

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