April 14, 2007: Veterinarian loses arm to crocodile [warning: kinda graphic]
 

http://cellar.org/2007/crocgetsarm1.jpg

This item was found elsewhere on the Cellar but not really catalogued, so I'll post this anyway and plug in more detail.

full story

It all happened at the Shaoshan Zoo in Taiwan. And they were following procedure, it appears; the croc was first hit with a tranquilizer dart, but when the vet went to handle it, the tranquilizer had not taken effect for some reason.

And bam, the arm's off. It's almost educational to see it, because with Steve Irwin and whatnot, we've only seen successful croc handling by those who know what to do.

http://cellar.org/2007/crocgetsarm1a.jpg

So another zoo worker shot the croc with an actual gun, which caused it to drop the arm and stalk away. What's weird is that they didn't find a bullet hole in the croc later - it was hit, but not punctured, and left the arm out of a state of shock ("did that dude just shoot me? WTF").

http://cellar.org/2007/crocgetsarm2.jpg

http://cellar.org/2007/crocgetsarm4.jpg

Now the good news: the arm was reattached after a seven-hour surgery.

Well, that could have gone better.

I hope his buddies chip in to give the good doctor this T-shirt.

I forsee many "need a hand?" jokes.

don't believe anyone who say croc's are basically 'armless creatures

What? You've never seen a crocodile handbag before?

I guess this makes me the first today to make a tasteless (ha ha) reference to eating the image of the day. I have to say, I can't blame the crocodile. That veterinarian looks delicious. :D

God, I wonder how much that would hurt? Damn.

Yeah, crocs don't really have cutting-style teeth. They're more get-a-good-grip-and rip-style.

ouch
must have been tough work for the surgeons if it was just ripped off.
I wonder if it still works properly. At least the crocodile didn't eat it.

All the papers here have his big smiling mug on the cover now, big ol' thumbs-up for all the people who were SO worried by the incident.


Actually, there's a big uproar cause when it first happened, a buncha papers ran the story with the graphic picture (the second one UT used), and now people are all up in arms (ooh, ouch.) about the graphic violence.

The zoo authorities are probably wishing they had put in some extra sessions of animal dress-up practice beforehand. Now we understand why such a thing might have been useful.

Well in Taiwan they'd probably eat that poor croc so I guess he was getting his own back

A pawn shop owner in Kaohsiung reported a croc trying to pawn a watch and wedding ring, but the croc fled with the items when the pawn broker reached for the phone.

The zoo bought the animal ten years ago from a local resident who had kept it as a pet.

Some kind of thanks!

I hope somebody briefed the keeper about this creature. After all, forewarned is forearmed.