From the angry hippo that tore its owner apart to the toddler eaten by a python, these are some of the most terrifying animal attacks of all time.
Most pet owners would agree that the animals we bring into our homes often become members of the family in their own right.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t apply to all animals, especially those who should have never been in the home in the first place — and who sometimes turn on their owners.
Some pet owners, unfortunately, learn the hard way that sometimes nurture is second to nature — and some animals will always be wild. Here are nine disturbing stories of people attacked by their animals that highlight that hard lesson.
Terry Vance Garner And His Man-Eating Pigs
Adobe Stock“Animals were his life,” said Michael Garner after his brother, Terry, was eaten by pigs.
In October 2012, a 69-year-old farmer in Oregon named Terry Vance Garner disappeared after he left to feed his roughly 700-pound pigs. Hours later, his family members made a horrifying discovery: Garner’s dentures and parts of his body inside the pig pen.
Garner’s brother, Michael, told The Independent that Garner was a “good-hearted guy” and “animals were his life.” Unfortunately, they ended his life as well.
It was possible that Garner had suffered a heart attack while feeding the pigs, but at the time, county investigators described the situation as “so doggone weird” that they had to examine every possibility — including the possibility that Garner’s pigs intentionally knocked him over so they could devour him.
In fact, one of the pigs had bitten Garner previously. Michael Garner expressed that the farmer originally intended to put the large sow down, but he later changed his mind.
Adobe StockPigs are omnivorous animals, in contrast to other farm animals that tend to be herbivores.
John Killefer, head of the Animal and Rangeland Sciences Department at Oregon State University at the time, explained that domestic pigs typically aren’t as hostile as feral hogs, but offered a reminder that “there is some degree of danger associated with any animal”.
It should also be noted that in contrast to most other farm animals like cows, horses, and chickens, pigs are omnivorous — and apparently, sometimes that includes fresh human meat.
Unfortunately, investigators never were able to determine if Terry Vance Garner died of a medical condition or if, in the end, his beloved farm animals really did commit a heinously Orwellian act of violence.
