Indonesian Mob Exacts Vengeance After Deadly Crocodile Attack
Russ Chastain 07.16.18
According to this BBC article, a 48-year-old man in Sorong regency, West Papua, Indonesia ended up in a crocodile breeding pond and was killed — so locals got together and did something about it. Giving new meaning to the term “crocodile attack,” they gathered up a pile of primitive weapons and went to work killing crocs.
After the funeral on Saturday, several hundred angry locals went to the sanctuary, armed with knives, shovels, hammers and clubs.
Local media cite officials saying the mob first attacked the office of the crocodile farm and then went on to slaughter all 292 reptiles at the sanctuary.
The crocs were part of a commercial crocodile breeding company.
The farm was operating on a licence to breed protected saltwater and New Guinea crocodiles both for preservation and to harvest some of the animals.
It apparently happened quickly.
“An employee heard someone screaming for help, quickly went there and saw a crocodile attacking someone,” the head of Indonesia’s Natural Resources Conservation Agency in West Papua said.
As to why the man entered the danger zone, reports vary according to Fox News:
The reason the man entered the pond wasn’t immediately clear, with some reports saying he was gathering vegetables while others suggested he may have entered to cut grass for his cattle.
At any rate, there are nearly 300 crocs that will never eat anyone — or anyone’s livestock. And that’s not exactly a bad thing, in my opinion. Here’s hoping they don’t prosecute the locals for thinning the herd.
