Tag: south africa
Lion tears off 4-year-old girl’s scalp at South Africa big cat farm
A lion ripped off a 4-year-old girl’s scalp in South Africa when the tot and her father got a little too close to a fence closing off the big cats from the public, according to a new report.
Dina Marie de Beer is listed in critical condition after the Sunday attack at the Weltevrede Lion Farm, The Independent reported.
The child’s dad, Peter, was holding his daughter so she could pet one of the cubs when the lioness grabbed him through the fence, South African station Netwerk24 reported.
Dina is listed in critical condition — with her scalp torn off, and one of the lion’s claws having penetrated her skull, the station reported. Part of her skull was surgically removed Monday to relieve pressure on her brain. Her dad, who only suffered minor injuries, told the outlet that it’s expected to be a long road ahead for his daughter.
A tour guide at the farm told The Independent the incident occurred when dad and daughter “got a bit too close,” adding that he hoped the little girl would have a “quick recovery.”
The owners of the farm did not respond to a request for comment from the outlet.
It has been a troublesome month for the lion farm: Just last week, another man was wounded in an attack through the fence, the South African station reported.
And back in 2010, two sisters, 3 and 5, were attacked by lionesses at the same farm, South African outlet Independent Online reported.
Both were treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
“Sometimes they play a little rough,” the farm’s owner, Nico Roets, told the paper about the lions at the time.
Up to 8,000 wild lions are held in captivity at 260 South African breeding farms, compared to fewer than 3,000 out in the wild, the Independent reported.
Protesters have previously blasted the farms for allegedly neglecting the animals — and in some cases, operating as total scams that benefit from trophy-hunting or Asia’s trade in bones.
“This horrible incident underscores the need for the government of South Africa to shut down the lion breeding industry in the country, in order to protect both people from these ‘snuggle scam’ businesses in which they expose themselves to potential danger, and spare the suffering of thousands of lions languishing in appalling inadequate captive conditions where they are used as props for the tourist trade,” Audrey Delsink, a spokeswoman for Humane Society International, told the outlet.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/05/16/lion-tears-off-4-year-old-girls-scalp-at-south-africa-big-cat-farm/
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Photo of black, white students segregated in South African classroom draws fire Elizabeth Llorente By Elizabeth Llorente | Fox News
A photo that an elementary school teacher in South Africa took of her classroom to soothe parents nervous about their children’s first day of school instead generated shock and outrage after it showed four black children sitting at a small table in a corner, separate from the white children seated at a larger table.
The teacher at Laerskool Schweizer-Reneke in South Africa’s North West province, shared the picture on the school’s WhatsApp group, intended as an update for parents.
However at least one of the children’s mothers, who does not wish to be identified, was furious with the connotations.
All I saw was messages from the white parents saying ‘dankie, dankie [‘thank you, thank you’] but no one was saying anything about the separation of the learners,” she told the South African Times.
The chairman of the school’s governing body, Jozeph du Plessis, said the teacher thought she was helping the students feel at ease on their first day of school, by seating them with children from their own racial group.
“We saw the photo and we were also angered by what we saw,” he said. “The kids were quite unsettled – you must realize they were five years old on their first day at school – and she grouped them in a way she thought would settle them quickly and comfort them.
“There was no intent of racism or segregation from the teacher’s side. We are investigating – perhaps it could be a language issue, perhaps those kids are not speaking Afrikaans, but I can’t speculate.”
The controversy prompted a protest outside the school on Thursday, and some white parents retrieved their children from class.
Sello Lehari, the provincial Education Minister, said after stopping by the school: “From the information I got from the meeting, it seems that there are a lot of cases here of racism.
“I will send a team to do an investigation into all schools… to deal with issues of racism in totality,” Lehari said.
Student activist Mcebo Dlamini said on social media the most “provocative” thing about the whole situation “is not that black kids are ostracized from white kids, that is common in our supposedly post-apartheid Africa.”
“Rather what becomes painful is that there are black people who still insist that racism has ended and who think that blacks and whites can have peaceful relations that do not have undertones of racism.”
The teacher has subsequently been suspended, according to South Africa’s News24.
Article via FoxNews
Woman found very much alive in morgue fridge
A woman was declared dead after suffering severe injuries in a car crash — but scared the life out of mortuary workers when they discovered she was still breathing.
The dead giveaway came when staffers at the Carleton morgue in South Africa pulled the woman’s body out of the refrigerator and found she was very much alive, according to Times Live.
The woman, who was not identified, was thought to have been fatally injured when she and others were ejected June 24 after a driver lost control of the car they were traveling in. Two others died.
Paramedics with Distress Alert, an ambulance company, checked her vitals and even used a machine, which showed no sign of life.
“This lady had severe and multiple injuries,” Distress Alert operations manager Gerrit Bradnick told the news site. “The injuries, especially to her head, were so bad, you could not work out her age or size.”
A mortuary source blamed the death debacle on paramedics.
“Paramedics are trained to determine death, not us,” the source said. “You never expect to open a fridge and find someone there alive. Can you imagine if we had begun the autopsy and killed her?”
The woman, from Gauteng, was immediately taken to Leratong Hospital in Krugersdorp, where she’s receiving care.
An investigation into the morbid mistake is under way, but Bradnick maintained that his company is not at fault.
“This did not happen because our paramedics are not properly trained,” he said. “There is no proof of any negligence by our crew.”
via: https://nypost.com/2018/07/02/woman-found-very-much-alive-in-morgue-fridge/
Sicko who stored female genitalia in freezer convicted
A Danish sicko who stored female genitalia in his freezer has been convicted in South Africa of a slew of charges, including conspiracy to commit murder and pedophilia, according to reports.
Peter Frederiksen made headlines two years ago after frozen pieces of at least seven sets of female genitalia were found at his South African home.
“I hope I can avoid a sentencing by appealing and going through a mental investigation,” Frederiksen said in the Free State High Court in Bloemfontein after being found guilty of 36 charges.
The court on Tuesday agreed to the 65-year-old’s request for a mental exam and postponed his case to March 12.
Frederiksen was “certainly not a man of high moral standing,” Judge Johann Daffue said Monday, according to the Times Live of South Africa.
“He simultaneously married two women and was involved with people who believed in Satanism,” Daffue told a packed court.
His wife, Anna Matseliso Molise, who turned him in to police after he drugged her and pierced her genitalia, was shot dead outside her Lesotho home while Frederiken was in prison awaiting trial.
Motlatsi Moqeti, a wheelchair-bound convict serving 11 years for attempted murder, told the court that Frederiksen had paid him about $1,500 to arrange a hit on her, according to the International Business Times.
One of Frederiksen’s victims told Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet that he gave her a glass of spiked champagne. When she awoke, her genitalia had been sliced off.
“I had a headache like I’ve never had before. And the pain’ I’ve never had such pain’” she said.
A 9-year-old girl told the court via video link that Frederiksen had raped her.
In addition to the genitals, police also found child porn at his home, as well as a diary that included a log of his mutilations and the sexual abuse of the girl.
He wrote an entry titled “Paedophile Pig” on one of the days he abused the girl, who did not have her genitals mutilated.
Frederiksen was convicted of 18 child pornography offenses and the rape of the child.
He also was convicted of assaulting his now deceased wife, conspiracy to commit murder, possession of an unregistered anesthetic drug, xylocaine, and illegal possession of firearms, according to the Independent Online.
But he was acquitted of two counts relating to the alleged rape of Molise.
“I give you the benefit of the doubt on counts five and six,” the judge said.
In September, the judge also dropped 20 charges relating to genital mutilation over a technicality, saying the country’s National Health Act did not indicate the nature of penalties.
The judge recommended that the law be amended as soon as possible to avoid similar oversights in the future.
via: http://nypost.com/2017/11/07/sicko-who-stored-female-genitalia-in-freezer-convicted/