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    sportzzzgirlGabrielle Bluestone
    1/15/14 1:24am

    'Put down'.

    The all-singing all-smiling world of euphemisms strikes again.

    Jeez. It was slain. Get. It. Right.

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      McMikesportzzzgirl
      1/15/14 5:45am

      "Slain"

      OK, then. The Elephant tried to brutally murder the people in the car.

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      Big McLargeHugesportzzzgirl
      1/15/14 7:19am

      I'm partial to "They killed the fuck out of that elephant"

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    flamingolingoGabrielle Bluestone
    1/15/14 1:14am

    Oh my fucking god. I hope all of the other elephants figure out what happened and gore a million other goddamned tourists.

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      Jinxeflamingolingo
      1/15/14 2:20am

      ...But that would get them killed, and then all the other elephants would revolt... and it'd get them killed. And then we'd never have elephants again!

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      flamingolingoJinxe
      1/15/14 2:56am

      The only solution to the human problem: ELEPHANT UPRISING!

      (I'm totally serious.)

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    Montauk MonsterGabrielle Bluestone
    1/15/14 3:08am

    The elephant went elephant.

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      SUSPECT__IS__HATLESSMontauk Monster
      1/15/14 4:10am

      This never gets old. Chris Rock may turn out to be the wisest of us all.

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      twizzlerSUSPECT__IS__HATLESS
      1/15/14 7:28am

      Aren't the comedians always. And yet we look at them as court jesters.

      Nothing really ever changes in the world, does it?

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    raincoasterGabrielle Bluestone
    1/15/14 3:45am

    If the state of aggression is so predictable, why didn't they isolate the elephant and prevent him from coming into contact with cars/why didn't they put people in vehicles that could stand that, like a Land Rover? When did we get the idea we could just toodle up to bull elephants on Vespas and be perfectly safe?

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      ChunkLovesSlothraincoaster
      1/15/14 10:48am

      They don't know what every animal is doing at every point in time. This isn't a theme park, it's a game reserve. There are no chips in the animals. Sometimes the good trackers can ID what pack an elephant came from but that's it. And even then, are they supposed to build a wall around that specific elephant? Kruger is huge.

      You also aren't supposed to do sudden movements near them unless it's a last resort. The car was admittedly close and should have moved when the ears started flapping but I doubt most people know that.

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      GawkerStoleMyIdentityIIraincoaster
      1/15/14 11:02am

      The word 'park' is misleading. This is out in the wild so there's no type of zoo or detainment centers and park rangers aren't in the business of securing wild animals. I've been in parks where there is no fence to protect the tents people are staying in (I walked back to mine to see a giraffe eating leaves right outside of my tent) and there are others where more protective measures are in place for the human guest (fences).

      Although the ones with no barriers had a few local 'security' guards who were armed with sticks and sling shots-mainly for the baboons but an elephant did charge a guest's tent and he had to run over and frighten it away. Luckily, the people weren't inside and no one (and no animal) was hurt.

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    VeryWellGabrielle Bluestone
    1/15/14 1:16am

    The video asks who's at fault. That car could've and should've blown out of there. Avoidable. Sorry Babar. RIP

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      ArchetypeVeryWell
      1/15/14 1:22am

      Yeah but I could just as easily see some other awful thing happening, like a flock of wild birds all taking off willy-nilly and crashing into one another, or waking sleeping rhinos from their slumber, only to have a mob attack, from accelerating and blowing out. I mean, I am almost certain they were told to NOT do that.

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      VeryWellArchetype
      1/15/14 1:25am

      Hypothetically, cos I'd never be there in the first place, I'd take my chances and gun it for quarter mile. Sort it out later.

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    Frankie89Gabrielle Bluestone
    1/15/14 1:17am

    "An elephant that attacked a car in a South African safari park in December, piercing a British schoolteacher with its tusks in the process, was put down by the park for behaving aggressively."

    Yeah, right, the elephant "behaved aggressively" not the humans who built an amusement park where it's not supposed to be.

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      Manfred HiggsFrankie89
      1/15/14 8:57am

      You obviously have no idea what you are talking about. The Kruger Park is more a sanctuary than an amusement park and is one of the few safe places for these animals. Some countries can easily fit inside of it! That all being said it was retarded that they shot the elephant, those tourists were behaving terribly with absolutely no respect for the animal.

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      GawkerStoleMyIdentityIIFrankie89
      1/15/14 9:27am

      As a person who has been on several safaris in multiple East African countries you have no idea what you're talking about if you refer to these areas as 'amusement parks'.

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    artost2Gabrielle Bluestone
    1/15/14 1:26am

    What are the odds all of those elephants would be horribly slaughtered or would otherwise die due to habitat loss and that the land would be used for human development if those narsty, ugly human tourists whose deaths are being called for didn't want to look the lovely wildlife and make protecting them economically advantageous?

    I'll admit that it was INCREDIBLY stupid to come that close to the elephant, but for all I know, the "tourists" weren't probably warned. I've never been on safari, but I know what musth is. The average person probably wouldn't know what the hell you were talking about if you mentioned it.

    ETA: All of you saying the car should have "driven away"—yes, they shouldn't have driven forward, but by the time they'd stopped, it was too late. Have you ever seen an elephant charge or freak out? The car was creeping and stopping for a reason; it's unfortunate the drivers only figured out too to stop moving too late.

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      Joneeartost2
      1/15/14 2:02am

      Well, Kruger is one of the oldest and largest game reserves in Africa, so hopefully it would remain that way tourists or no. Although I'm sure the tourists help. It's a pretty popular destination and really beautiful.

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      UngratefulDeadartost2
      1/15/14 2:10am
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    OverlordoftheGreysGabrielle Bluestone
    1/15/14 1:18am

    So kill the animal for acting on it's instinct when a large metal machine full of crooked teeth Brits are in it's territory? I'm starting to think these kinds of places aren't about conservation at all. My silly naivety.

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      SUSPECT__IS__HATLESSOverlordoftheGreys
      1/15/14 4:12am

      The crooked teeth thing is a myth* and "ITS" SHOULD NOT HAVE AN APOSTROPHE in this instance! How DARE you?!?

      *I'm not even British, I just feel obliged to defend the empire.

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      WhackaDudeSUSPECT__IS__HATLESS
      1/15/14 7:20am

      Fuck the Imperialist bastards. Seriously. British people are often lovely. The British Empire can kiss my ass. Arrogant fucks. They did nothing but enslave the continent of Africa along with the rest of Europe's most arrogant nations. You know, because it can't be "claimed" land unless it was done by a white person.

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    AnongalGabrielle Bluestone
    1/15/14 1:35am

    They should've not been so lucky. They should've reversed as soon as they saw it on the road not tried to intimidate it with their stupid car. I'm gonna be hated but f*ck it: this is what's wrong with white people in Africa. As an African, we all know not to f*ck with the elephants or wildlife and this is stressed to these dumbass tourists when they go to the park yet they will still try to pull some stupid stuff. These same people will "adopt"[read enslave] lions and other big cats in cages on their farms then act all surprised when the lions eat them and their families when they grow up. I'm tired of seeing animals die because of stupid humans and then they have the gaol to run their mouths about preservation.

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      hoydenistaAnongal
      1/15/14 6:16am

      Appreciate the sentiment and totally agree that the people are in the wrong here, just wondering though, what makes you think they're both white people? I mean, they may be for all I know, but the articles I read said the fiance was from Africa and they were there visiting his family. Also, I haven't seen any pictures of the teacher herself. Although she has a very anglo name there are a lot of British people who aren't white and their names don't give that away.

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      SuperWittySmittyAnongal
      1/15/14 8:12am

      The <i>what?</i> The <i>gaol?</i> (I'm teasing you because of your ridiculous assertion that today's "African" knows better how to co-exist with wildlife and nature better than white people do, and that tourists are stupid. Stereotyping, generalizing, prejudice - these are simplistic ways to view the world. Grow up already.

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    The Ghost of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ AKA BabyStepsGabrielle Bluestone
    1/15/14 2:06am

    They would have had to have broken out the hazmat suits to rescue me because much shit would have been smeared all over the inside of that car! Given how that elephant was rolling that car around it would have been kind of like when they tell you to butter than flower a cake pan before using it to bake with.

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