If you play with fire, you’re going to get burned, and if you stick your hand in a croc’s mouth, chances are you’ll get bitten.
Most of you who read the headline of this article will, like me, have probably thought to yourself ‘no sh*t Sherlock’, because as we’ve come to realise (some sooner than others), playing with crocodiles is a dangerous game.
However, much like the guys in Jurassic Park, who keep bringing dinosaurs back, despite the numerous disasters and fatalities that occur literally every time they do, some people never learn.
Like this guy for example, who thinks it’s alright to play around with the closest ancestors to the things in Jurassic Park, and stick his arm down a crocodiles’s throat.
Somewhat inevitably, it doesn’t go well. Check it out:
The terrifying moment happened when a brave trainer put his arm in the croc’s mouth in front of dozens of spectators.
The reptile handler, 45-year-old Tao, was performing the stunt at the Phokkathara zoo in Chiang Rai, northern Thailand, in front of around 100 people yesterday, (Sunday, July 29).
As the bandana-wearing zoo-keeper reached inside the animal’s jaws, he began pushing deeper down the croc’s throat – looking at the audience and telling the announcer to stop the music.
But the reptile struck back – suddenly chomping down and clamping its teeth around Tao’s forearm, before shaking him violently from side to side.
The performer was heard letting out an agonising howl before freeing himself and staggering away with blood dripping on the wet tiles.
The astonishing scene was captured by 35-year-old Khun Phusawit, who’d been visiting the crocodile farm and zoo with his wife, Nok, and their two children.
Phusawit said:
The show was very good until that happened. I hope that the man is OK and he gets better soon.
Everybody was shocked when it happened. The kids were a little bit scared.
I’ve watched the clip back many times to see how it happened and the crocodile seems to not like having the hand in his mouth.
Crocs don’t like having people’s hands in their mouths? I think we all could’ve guessed that without the handler (quite a fitting job title when you think about it) finding out the hard way.
The owner of the crocodile park, Dong Wittawat, said today, (Monday July 30), the trainer who’d been bitten was treated at the farm with bandaging to his arm.
Wittawat said:
The performer is fine. His name is Tao and he is 45. The crocodile does not have a name.
He was was treated at the farm with bandaging. He loves crocodiles and he will be working again soon in the next two weeks. It is very rare for this to happen.
The Phokkathara Crocodile Farm includes a live show and houses dozens of different types of animals.
No matter how well you ‘train’ a wild animal, it seems these incidents will always happen because, as we know, ‘life, uh, finds a way.’
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.