{"id":99066,"date":"2023-03-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-13T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aleksawn.bget.ru\/10-neveroyatno-strannyx-smertej-zhivotnyx\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T13:25:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T10:25:29","slug":"10-incredibly-strange-dead-animals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/10-neveroyatno-strannyx-smertej-zhivotnyx\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Incredibly Strange Animal Deaths"},"content":{"rendered":"

We've explored plenty of strange historical deaths in the past. There are plenty of them... so this time, we're switching things up. We all know that humans can find many unique and strange ways to meet their maker, but what about animals?<\/p>\n

10. Pigeon from a fast ball<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

On March 21, 2001, future Baseball Hall of Famer Randy Johnson approached Arizona Diamondbacks Stadium, preparing for a spring training game against the San Francisco Giants. Little did he know he was about to create one of baseball's most infamous bloopers.<\/p>\n

Johnson threw the ball at nearly 100 miles per hour. It wasn't for nothing that he was nicknamed "The Big One." But as the ball hurtled toward the hitter, a pigeon had the misfortune of flying right in front of him. The ball struck the bird, killing it instantly, leaving behind a cloud of feathers. Numerous curious spectators were baffled as to what the hell just happened.<\/p>\n

The pigeon was removed, its feathers were cleaned, and the referees had to deliberate on the decision, as there was no rule regarding an animal interfering with play on the field.<\/p>\n

9. Killer Mary<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In September 1916, the circus Sparks World Famous Shows<\/i> arrived in Sullivan County, Tennessee. On the 12th, the show was held in Kingsport. At the front of the line stood the main attraction\u2014a 30-year-old Asian elephant named Mary, ridden by her trainer, Red Eldridge.<\/p>\n

Despite its whimsical name, Sparks' Circus was a fringe operation and lacked the funds to hire a proper animal trainer. In fact, just a few days earlier, Eldridge had been working as a hotel bellhop. That same day, he was hired by the circus without any training or experience handling large, dangerous animals. Who could have predicted that something would go wrong?<\/p>\n

Either way, something happened during the parade. We're not sure what. Some say Red hooked Mary's ear; others that he poked her infected tooth; or maybe she just didn't like the guy. The end result was the same\u2014Mary exploded, threw Eldridge off her, and then killed him. Again, the exact method of execution is unclear.<\/p>\n

Now Charlie Sparks had a problem. Mary was his "cash cow" elephant, but everyone in the local community wanted her dead. No town would allow his circus to operate with "Killer Mary" still at large, so he reluctantly agreed to execute her, but the question was, how?<\/p>\n

They traveled to the neighboring town of Erwin, where the railroad industry was thriving. The decision was made to hang Mary using the powerful industrial derrick they had, and since Sparks wasn't one to pass up an opportunity, he invited the entire town to participate at no extra cost.<\/p>\n

8. Basel Devil's Rooster<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

You may occasionally read about roosters laying eggs. But can a male hen lay eggs? The simple answer is no; the more complex answer is not really, but it appears she can... What actually happened was that the hen underwent a spontaneous sex change, caused by dysfunction of the left ovary, which causes the right ovary to release testosterone. Consequently, the bird grows larger, develops male plumage, and may even begin to crow. In other words, she looks and acts like a rooster, but is actually a hen in disguise.<\/p>\n

Nowadays, we understand this process and simply regard it as a freak of nature. But in the Middle Ages, such anomalies were clearly the work of the devil. Worse, rooster eggs were considered very powerful ingredients for witchcraft. Some even wrote that such eggs would hatch into a two-legged snake-like creature known as a cockatrice.<\/p>\n

It was under such circumstances in 1474 that an unfortunate hen in Basel was mistaken for a rooster, and when she laid an egg, all hell broke loose. Both the hen and the egg were taken into custody, and the hen was brought to trial "for the heinous and unnatural crime of laying an egg." The hen was found guilty and burned at the stake along with the egg for participating in witchcraft.<\/p>\n

7. Woolly Jumpers<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Calling someone a "sheep" is a derogatory way of implying that they lack independent thinking and are easily influenced by others. Some might argue that such a depiction is a bit unfair to sheep, but they might change their minds after learning about a strange event that occurred in Turkey in 2005.<\/p>\n

A gigantic flock of sheep grazed outside the town of Gevas, near the shores of Lake Van. The town contained approximately 1,500 sheep, owned by dozens of families. At one point, one sheep approached a cliff and, for reasons known only to itself, leaped to its death.<\/p>\n

All the other sheep thought it was a good idea and followed her. The shepherds could only watch in stunned horror as 1,500 sheep plummeted over the cliff. About 450 died. The rest survived only because the layer of dead sheep had grown so thick that it began to cushion the fall of those who jumped later.<\/p>\n

6. Atomic cow<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00abA "broken arrow" is a term used by the US military to describe an accident involving a nuclear weapon or nuclear components that did not pose a risk of nuclear war. Since 1950, the Department of Defense has reported 32 such incidents, the most infamous of which occurred on May 22, 1957, when a Convair B-36 bomber accidentally dropped a Mark 17 hydrogen bomb south of Albuquerque, New Mexico.<\/p>\n

The plane was en route to Kirtland Air Force Base, transporting a 42,000-pound thermonuclear device from Biggs Airfield in El Paso, Texas. The exact cause of the malfunction was never determined, but the hydrogen bomb broke free of its containment devices, fell through the closed bomb bay doors, and crashed to the ground.<\/p>\n

Just to be clear: for safety reasons, there were no nuclear components inside the bomb. There was no chance the Mark 17 would go nuclear, but the conventional explosives detonated on impact, leaving a 25-foot-wide crater. Fortunately, the area where it landed was uninhabited, but there was one unfortunate casualty\u2014a single cow that happened to be grazing nearby.<\/p>\n

5. Cocaine Bear<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Recently released movie\u00abCocaine Bear\u00bb<\/i> Pretty much does what it says on the tin: it shows a bear taking a lot of cocaine and then going on a rampage. It sounds like a preposterous idea plucked from the strangest corners of Hollywood fantasy, but it's actually based on a true story.<\/p>\n

Back in 1985, notorious drug smuggler Andrew Thornton crashed his plane while transporting a shipment of cocaine from Colombia to the United States. Before the crash, Thornton jettisoned his cargo in a last-ditch attempt to right the plane. It didn't work, but the drugs landed safely in a forest near Knoxville, Tennessee.<\/p>\n

Enter our furry protagonist. A few days later, a curious bear stumbled upon the merchandise and, intrigued by his new find, ripped open the duffel bag. He told himself he'd just try it, just try it, but ended up dunking his entire face in the white substance, Tony Montana-style. Before he knew it, the bear had consumed over 70 pounds of cocaine. .<\/p>\n

What happened next is where the movie diverges from real life. While the cinematic beast continued to terrorize, the real bear simply died of an overdose because, well, he ate 70 pounds of cocaine. But what a way!<\/p>\n

4. The Falaise Pig<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Here we're dealing with another medieval animal ordeal, but it was notorious enough to earn its own nickname\u2014the sow of Falaise. And, frankly, assuming the accusations are true, this one truly deserves execution. In fact, it's certainly the most heinous crime committed by any animal on this list. In 1386, a sow in the French town of Falaise devoured a three-month-old infant, who subsequently died from her injuries.<\/p>\n

The pig was executed on January 9, 1386. The execution was a significant event in its time, and several legends arose around the Falaise pig. Some said the animal was dressed in human clothing on the day of its death, while others claimed that local pigs were brought in to witness what happened to farm animals that tried to eat people. The execution scene was allegedly even depicted on a fresco inside a local church, but no such depictions survive.<\/p>\n

3. Fabio's Bird Madness<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

There are certain moments that are not only immortalized in pop culture but also define an entire generation\u2014like the moon landing or the fall of the Berlin Wall. But for kids of the '90s, that moment came when Fabio killed a goose with his face.<\/p>\n

It was March 30, 1999. Fabio was a successful model who first gained fame posing for the covers of romance novels. On that fateful day, he was at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, helping promote the opening of a new roller coaster. As the guest of honor, Fabio sat front and center during the inaugural ride. When the coaster began, Fabio was all smiles, but by the time it ended, his face was a bloody mess.<\/p>\n

During the ride, a goose flew straight into the model's face. The impact was strong enough to kill the bird, though Fabio only needed a few stitches. At least, that's the story we were led to believe. Only two decades later did Fabio reveal what really happened. In a plot twist worthy of Agatha Christie, the bird never touched him. In reality, the goose died after crashing into a video camera mounted on the roller coaster. A piece of the camera struck Fabio and cut his nose, but the folks at Busch Gardens eagerly promoted the original version of the story to avoid liability.<\/p>\n

2. Topsy the Elephant<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We come to perhaps the most infamous animal execution in history, the execution of Topsy the elephant. Topsy was electrocuted on January 4, 1903, at Coney Island's Luna Park, and the whole thing was captured on camera for the short film "Electrocution." elephant"\u00bb<\/i> , produced by the Thomas Edison Film Company.<\/p>\n

Edison's role in the whole affair was another factor that contributed to the event's notoriety. For years, he bore the brunt of the blame for Topsy's death, accused of engineering the entire stunt to show the world how dangerous alternating current could be. After all, would anyone want something powerful enough to instantly kill an elephant in their home, especially when Edison's direct current was supposed to be much safer?<\/p>\n

It sounded like something Edison would have done. He had a reputation for being ruthless and manipulative in business, and Topsy became the unfortunate victim of the so-called War of the Currents. However, this time, Edison was innocent. The War of the Currents ended in the early 1890s with a resounding victory for alternating current. Topsy was killed a decade later. In this particular case, his company was there precisely to capture the extraordinary moment on film, and the real villains in this story were Topsy's owners, who decided to kill the elephant for publicity.<\/p>\n

1. A cow, two heifers, three sheep, and two pigs (oh my)<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Cotton Mather was a Puritan minister and writer in 17th-century New England. As a member of the Royal Society of London, he was considered one of the leading intellectuals of colonial America and later gained infamy for his role in the Salem witch trials. However, we're not interested in that, as we're here to talk about the guy he reportedly reported having sex with animals.<\/p>\n

His name was William Potter, and he was in his sixties. Although Potter was described as devout, religious, and "zealous in righting the wrongs of others," he admitted to sodomizing animals when he was just 10 years old and never looking back. His wife even caught him in the act with the family dog, but he persuaded her to remain silent. At the time of his arrest, Potter owned a brothel on his farm, consisting of a cow, two heifers, three sheep, and two sows.<\/p>\n

Since bestiality was considered a form of satanic possession, Potter was found guilty and sentenced to death. He was executed on June 6, 1662, in New Haven, but before he was killed, all of his animal "lovers" were executed before his eyes, one after another, causing him to collapse in tears by the time he reached the noose.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We've investigated a lot of strange historical deaths in the past. There are a lot of them\u2026 so this time we're changing the script. We all know what people can find\u2026<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesnye-fakty","hvn-theme-has-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99066"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":138016,"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99066\/revisions\/138016"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imgist.ru\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}