From News 24:
A wounded buffalo gored a white Kenyan farmer and his guard to death on the shores of Lake Naivasha in the Rift Valley region, local wildlife officials said on Wednesday.
Rick Hopcraft, a third generation Kenyan farmer, was killed when the pair were hunting down the wounded buffalo alongside Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) rangers on his ranch late on Tuesday. His guard, Paramoise Tinia, who tried to save him was also attacked by the animal and later died of injuries.
A manager on Hopcroft's farm, John Kariuki, said that Hopcraft had also been wounded in a buffalo attack last year just outside his house.
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13 comments:
There's an awful lot not being said in that article.
Ch, it puzzled me how much space there was for reading between the lines, but let's take it face value for now.
News24 are usually anything but reticent, but the throwaway reference to a 'wounded buffalo' raised immediate alarm bells.
Firstly how did it become 'wounded', and secondly, a wounded buffalo is one of the most dangerous things around. It is REALLY not a good idea to be anywhere near one. If our unfortunate farmer was simply trying to end it's suffering, he's a braver man than I. If however, he was trying to ensure that a 'trophy' didn't get away, good riddance.
He has previous as well, being wounded by another mysterious buffalo attack last year???
Also noteworthy that his tracker/guide was also killed, but gets a single sentence afterthought.
Ch: "Also noteworthy that his tracker/guide was also killed, but gets a single sentence afterthought."
Yup, it's the whole Edmund Hillary/Sherpa Tenzing Norgay narrative yet again.
Why is "*white" farmer" relevant to the story? It's all rather Reithian of the BBC - Empire and all that.
PS Mark - I'm amazed you didn't pick up (also from the BBC) a fatal attack by a bull on a farmer in England was reported yesterday.
NM, "white" is relevant for the same reason as it's relevant that 2 of the 27 miners who died in NZ were British. Or it's the Hilary/Norgay thing all over again. And I did post the bull/farmer story, once VFTS had pointed it out to me.
Still very odd. He is obviously not a tourist and so would know all about the buffalo and how it is responsible for more deaths than any other African animal (yes, more than hippos, elephants, snakes, lions etc.) This just makes it more odd.
Do pen pushers in the UK have nothing better to do than think up comments when they have no idea on the background?
Rick was a close family friend and was helping to preserve wildlife in an area where the animals habitat is diminishing, to satisfy the wests demand for flowers and vegetables. Due to the growing population in the area game meat is much sought after leading to poaching. This inevitably means that some animals wounded by the snares or arrows and get away, this also explains his earlier run in with a buffalo. Rick and Tinia had identified a wounded animal and called in the KWS to kill a very aggressive animal. Unfortunately he paid the ultimate price for being a reponsible landowner.
They were BOTH brave men and there was never any thought of a 'trophy'.
Let family and friends grieve in peace without such thoughtless comments.
Anon, what are you on about? Did you READ the comments? You clearly missed them:
Comment 1. There's an awful lot not being said in that article.
2. it puzzled me how much space there was for reading between the lines, but let's take it face value for now.
3. commenting on the way the article is written and possible reasons as "they have no idea on the background".
4 & 5. Also picking up oddities in the way the article is written.
6. about other news
7. mine, agreeing that the article is written in an odd way (doesn't give enough details) and a snippet about buffalo.
8. Your comment: first two lines insulting the other commentators then add some info that we didn't have and all would have liked. "Let family and friends grieve in peace without such thoughtless comments."
Get real dude.
Anon, I just post stories about cow (and related animal) attacks on human beings, I don't have any sort of editorial policy.
Span, thanks for that response. Your first comment seems perfectly fair and above board to me - you said there were questions, and Anon has answered some of them.
Apologies, it appears I have taken the comments out of context. What I took exception to was 'Chuckles' comments on 'another mysterious buffalo attack last year' and 'good riddance'.
What I wrote earlier are some of the facts behind the unfortunate incident. Due to the circumstances I was a little heated, apologies.
Anon, apology accepted and ta for extra background info.
Anon, thank you for the additional information. That is exactly what we were commenting on, the lack of just such information in the article.
If you think my comments were uncalled for or derogatory, I suggest you read them again.
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