Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Why you don't keep African critters as pets....

....because they will try to kill you:

https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/warthog-attack-texas-exotics/

His Best Friend Was a 250-Pound Warthog. One Day, It Decided to Kill Him.

By the age of thirty, a time when most people are just beginning to think about their mortality, Austin Riley had already conquered his fear of death. He’d come exceedingly close to dying on multiple occasions, including a few months before his first birthday, when doctors discovered a golf ball–size tumor growing inside his infant skull. He would go on to spend much of his childhood in and out of hospitals, enduring high-risk brain surgeries and grueling recoveries. Then, in his mid-twenties, he was nearly killed by a brain hemorrhage that arrived one night without warning, unleashing the worst pain he’d ever felt. He emerged from that experience reborn, feeling lucky to be alive and convinced that his life had been spared by God.

So as he sat in a pool of his own blood on a beautiful October evening in 2022, he couldn’t help but acknowledge the morbid absurdity of his current predicament. He’d spent decades conquering brain injuries only to be killed while doing mundane chores on his family’s 130-acre Hill Country ranch in Boerne. “After all I’d been through,” he said, “I just couldn’t believe that this was how it was going to end.”

As he slumped against a fence and his mangled body began to shut down, Austin’s mind went into overdrive. He thought about his girlfriend, Kennedy, whom he’d never get a chance to marry, and the children he’d never be able to raise. He thought about how much he loved his parents and how badly he wished he could thank them for the life they’d provided. He thought about the land stretched out before him, a rustic valley accentuated by crimson and amber foliage that seemed to glitter in the evening light, and realized it had never seemed more beautiful than it did in that moment.

But mostly, he thought about the animal that had just used its razor-sharp, seven-inch tusks to stab him at least fifteen times. The attack had shredded his lower body and filled his boots with blood, and then left gaping holes in his torso and neck. Had any other animal been responsible, Austin would’ve considered it a random attack. But this was a pet he’d trusted more than any other: his lovable, five-year-old warthog, Waylon.

It wasn’t just an attack, as far as Austin was concerned, but a murderous act of betrayal, one that shattered everything he thought he knew about the deep bond between man and pig. “For years, that animal trusted me everyday and I trusted him,” Austin said. “I put blood, sweat, and tears into his life, and he decided to kill me.”

I thought this was going to be a thread about democrats, kinda disappointed

Austin Riley????? What are the braves gonna do for a 3rd baseman?

Hakuna Matata......

Chit happens. Dude is lucky to still be breathing

Beyond lucky. He needs to dial it back. I'd say he's used up all his 'luck' at this point in his life, and he's had more than most folks are allotted.

So, his "best friend" is a wart hog?

Alrighty then.

Interesting story. Thanks for posting it. I've hunted several of these guys in South Africa so I can relate. Back in 2002, our PH had a female in the yard at his residence.

Cheers! Bob F.

More bad luck than most anybody still alive.

The bleached skull of the warthog that nearly killed him would be a conversation piece.

As would be the slices of bacon in the refrigerator

Well, that got taken care of when they took apart it's head to get to the brain. A tusk on a necklace would be cool.

Pigs are for eating. Period. That is their sole purpose in life.

Everything in Africa is more aggessive than its North American counterparts.

Leopard vs Mountain Lion.
Cape Buffalo vs Bison.
Cobra vs Rattlesnake.
Crocodile vs Alligator.

You get the idea..😉😉😉

I want to pet a honey badger

Turn them loose to cross breed.

That one was on Dad.

What is interesting is the number of people that routinely do stupid things and then act surprised when it bites them on the arse.

Oh well

Read recently about a man who saved a baby hippo and raised it to be his friend. Lasted a few years. Guess what killed the kind fellow. Yeah, the hippo.