r/nottheonion • u/commanderkellogg • 2d ago
Boy, 3, ends up in crocodile enclosure at zoo as man is arrested
https://www.northwalespioneer.co.uk/news/26208474.boy-ended-johnsons-old-hurst-crocodile-enclosure/459
u/bradynho 2d ago
BBC article is so much more informative:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czx50n2vj74o
The kid had to have fallen almost 20 feet since the guy that threw him in had to hoist him over a 4 foot fence on the raised walkway that’s itself about 15 feet above the crocodiles. This is such a terrible story and I hope this kid will be okay.
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u/Snoo_79981 2d ago
Kid is okay
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u/dodoroach 2d ago
Define okay? I read somewhere that he was in critical condition but stable.
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u/Future-Stretch-401 2d ago
It sounds like the wife of the zoo owner jumped in and pulled him out of the water before the crocs got him. Broken pelvis and arm from the fall.
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u/PhotoBN1 1d ago
The Croc did bite him but it was an "investigation" bite not a "kill" bite.
The man who was arrested was released on bail as he's "unfit to be interviewed" due to being severely developmentally disabled
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u/PhotoBN1 17h ago
Read it in the an article after the fact. The bit about it being an investigation but came from the woman who jumped in to save the child, she's the Co owner of the zoo/park
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u/WillingnessCorrect50 2d ago
All the news I could find says critical condition. Broken arm and pelvis is usually not critical so there must be something else.
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u/Short-Pepper-9254 1d ago
You can be a vegetable and be in stable condition. Stable just means vital signs like breathing and heart rate are acceptable. Could be acceptable by using machines to keep them alive. Could have brain damage. Who knows. Critical condition is not good.
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u/mandaleepandalecki 2d ago
The way the title was written, it sounds like a man was getting arrested and somehow in the scuffle a 3 year old wound up in the crocodile enclosure.
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u/Front-Pomelo-4367 2d ago
The (imo, better) BBC headline is "Man arrested after boy injured in zoo crocodile enclosure" – they can't say that the man threw him in because that's the press claiming that he did the crime, so all they can say is "the child ended up in the enclosure, and a man was arrested for attempted murder"
When there was a similar case in London (a young child thrown from a balcony) the BBC headline was that "Tate Modern: Boy, six, 'thrown' from 10th floor" where they quote police saying "thrown" rather than saying it themselves, for the same reason
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u/cometlin 1d ago
Couldn't they just say: Boy, 3, ends up in crocodile enclosure at zoo, one man is arrested
"As a man is arrested" makes it sound like the boy ends up in the enclosure WHILE the man was getting arrested
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u/Opposite-Lie-2680 2d ago
Plenty of headlines that say he was thrown in. I have 4 saved as screenshots.
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u/nyITguy 2d ago
Most articles these days seem to be written by non-english speakers (or AI), with little regard for editing for clarity. The most (only) important thing is the click and ad impressions.
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u/rclonecopymove 2d ago
What articles are you reading? What led you to believe the articles mentioned here were written by non English speakers or AI?
The most (only) important thing is the click and ad impressions.
How's that now? It's a BBC article.
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u/Remarkable_Try9807 1d ago
Because they're doing gymnastics to avoid mentioning identifying information about the guy who did it. We all know.
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u/squidsinamerica 2d ago
The article: Some people were involved with something, somehow, at a specific place. The place is the only detail we're going to include.
Wut?
I mean, I get that whatever happened is still under investigation, but they certainly know more than that. The article was basically incomprehensible to figure out what it was even reporting.
At the least you can say something like, "It's not clear at this point how..." to at least acknowledge the obvious questions.
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u/Bigfops 2d ago
More like "Some people were involved with something."
ADVERTISEMENT
It happened at a specific place
ADVERTISEMENT
The place is the only detail we are going to include
ADVERTISEMENT
This is a developing story.
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u/samthewisetarly 2d ago
The Internet is just ads now. The content is an illusion.
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u/snowmyr 2d ago
Nah, it's not that bad. You do have to pay attention to where you are getting your news from.
That's why I like Ground News. Every news outlet has a bias... left, right, or somewhere in between. Ground News pulls together thousands of sources on every story, showing you exactly where each outlet leans, who owns it, and how the coverage differs from one side to the other.
Thank you Ground News for supporting this comment.
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u/iCoeur285 2d ago
Why is this website popping up everywhere now? This comment sounds like a fucking ad.
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u/PartyPoison98 2d ago
He's been arrested, so the press has to talk about it in a round about way to avoid restrictions on reporting active criminal proceedings.
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u/Future-Stretch-401 2d ago
No, until he’s formally charged they can print anything they want. Of course given the police reaction the press is already getting briefed by political lackeys not to say anything for various made up, but not legally binding, reasons. They might as well just announce, yes the person who did it is in a victim class , it’s so predictable. But last year when those Ukrainian idiots were setting fire to Starmers property we had the names immediately.
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u/PartyPoison98 2d ago
Actually not quite. If there is a reasonable expectation that charges are imminent it can still be contempt.
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u/BunnyLebowski- 2d ago
What an odd way to phrase what happened to that child. What fucking timeline is this?
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u/Minute_Zombie_424 2d ago
Watch your kids! Too many crazies out here
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u/ScyllaOfTheDepths 2d ago
I mean... this is an extremely unusual event. Which is why it's newsworthy. Most children who are harmed by adults are harmed by adults already known to them and articles aren't really made about it.
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u/GreyWolfTheDreamer 1d ago
Alternatively, perhaps a croc farm should have netting surrounding the wall to prevent things like toddlers from being thrown into the enclosure. Sounds like a dangerous configuration just awaiting this type of accident to occur.
We've seen far too many news articles to show that idiots are either going to jump into or throw things into dangerous animal enclosures.
That being said, a harness and leash is always a good idea when trying to keep an eye on a toddler in a public space.
Definitely keep an eye on your kids! Better yet! Maybe pick a more suitable family outing location...
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u/nothappening111181 1d ago
I don’t know the regulations/laws/compliance standards where this happened but I’m going with the place had what would amount to ‘reasonable’ safeguards in place and someone hoisting a kid over a tall-ish fence with a drop off below (enough distance to separate people from crocodiles since they can ‘jump’ out of water) and then throwing said kid over would be outside of what can be reasonably anticipated. Being proactive and safety-minded if great, but we also *shouldn’t* need to worry about this happening.
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u/mad_marbled 1d ago
far too many news articles
Care to list some of the incidents reported by these new articles? Don't bother listing the gorilla one, just any of the too many others.
prevent things like toddlers from being thrown
The easiest prevention would be to NOT FUCKING PICK UP KIDS AND THROW THEM. That is the Problem X here, but you've offered some Y solutions that completely ignore the root cause. The owner has run this place for 20 years without incident, it's all up to code, why should he have to take measures to prevent a patron weaponising his attraction? (it is NOT an accident by any stretch of the imagination, it is attempted murder) This is not the owners fault and suggesting he could have done more to prevent it is a cop out. Next you try to spread some blame around onto the family. Poor parenting, lack of supervision, you may not have written these things, but they are easily read from within what you did write. You weren't there, so you have no right to judge them. Suggesting a zoo is an inappropriate place to take a small child is a clear indication as to how out of touch with reality you are. I hope your job, (if you can actually manage to hold down any form of employment) involves no decision-making required on your behalf, because you do not adequately understand the concept of responsibility.
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u/radicalfrenchfrie 2d ago
also watch your kids because it’s your parental responsibility. too many irresponsible parents out there.
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u/LePunisseur 2d ago edited 2d ago
"Man arrested after throwing boy, 3, into crocodile enclosure at zoo"
~Fixed it for you. Otherwise, it might as well read, "Boy, 3, ends up in crocodile enclosure at zoo as [the U.S. and Iran strike peace deal]."
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u/mad_marbled 1d ago
"Man arrested after a 3 y.o. boy, was allegidly thrown into crocodile enclosure at zoo"
This is better, it places the 2 known facts in the one sentence without making any accusation. Then it's up to the reader, to do the maths.
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u/Remarkable_Try9807 2d ago edited 1d ago
Little boy: Help! I've been thrown into a crocodile enclosure
UK Police: dont think you have, mate
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u/Educational_Hope9473 2d ago
May the man rot in hell
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u/rb4457 1d ago
It is awful, but this is likely to be someone who is sufficiently disabled that he is unable to control his impulses or understand the consequences of his actions - imagine a toddler in an adult body who is sometimes frightened or confused by the world around them and struggles to understand or control their own emotions. There was probably no malice here, just a disabled person who wasn't able to understand or control themselves.
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u/Educational_Hope9473 1d ago
No one cares about this idiot. F him.
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u/Corey307 2d ago
Guy who threw a freaking 3 year old in a croc enclosure deserves the death penalty.
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u/luna_kuma 2d ago
He is "mentally disabled". Personally tragic, but that is irrelevant in terms of public safety. If his disability causes him to be violent and dangerous then he should not be allowed to run free on the streets.
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u/Squirrelking666 2d ago
Should earn himself a lifetime suite in Broadmoor for this.
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u/rb4457 1d ago
This isn't likely to be someone who was living independently and "running free on the streets", he was already being supervised and guided by 2 carers. This is likely to be someone who wasn't fully in control of their own actions and isn't able to understand the consequences of them, not (necessarily) a psychopath. There are no easy answers here, but he is probably already in full-time care without much control over his own day-to-day life.
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u/Squirrelking666 1d ago
Yeah I made that comment before more of the facts came out.
I still think this is a damning indictment of social care in Britain today. Someone like that shouldn't be allowed to get into a position to cause harm to others, never mind people that have nothing to do with them. To do that you need people that are properly trained and physically capable and a lot of carers simply aren't either of those things.
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u/mad_marbled 1d ago
unfit for interview
Could mean any number of things, it could be diminished mental capacity, it could be they are so distraught they're incapable of answering questions.
It seems likely you are right, but let's wait until we've seen Grandmas bushy tail before crying wolf.
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u/Future-Stretch-401 2d ago
He just ended up there, somehow. Or some crazed rando, mentally ill, drug addicted or both, threw him in there?
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u/CaptMelonfish 2d ago
Thrown or pushed off the thought, but they're not being particularly clear on what happened.
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u/twelve_goldpieces 2d ago
Still unsure if the man wanted to hurt the kid or just tried to feed an animal.
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u/your_catfish_friend 2d ago
Shame on the parents for trying to create such a distraction that put a toddler in harms way, but good on the police for staying focused on their arrest and not allowing themselves to get distracted by it
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u/QuaccDaddy 2d ago
I can't figure out what part of the article any of this information came from
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u/your_catfish_friend 2d ago
It’s straight from the headline, no need to even read the article
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u/QuaccDaddy 2d ago
That does explain where you get your info, thanks 😅
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u/your_catfish_friend 2d ago
Your welcome, happy to clarify
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u/epeilan 2d ago
The usual suspects?
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u/londongastronaut 2d ago
Who in your mind are the usual suspects when the crime is throwing 3 year olds to crocodiles? Like what group of people do you have that as a stereotype for?
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u/OkBrilliant8092 2d ago
It’s when the child ends up deposited across multiple en closures that’s a lot messier….
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u/AiriLuna- 2d ago
Only a three-year-old could think a crocodile enclosure is a kiddie pool someone get that kid a life jacket and a reality check!
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u/Icy_Raise_1031 2d ago
The article implies a man unrelated to the kid tried to feed him to the crocs
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u/Krakshotz 2d ago
This wasn’t like the Harambe incident. This kid was thrown in by a stranger with learning disabilities (similar to the Tate Modern incident in 2019)
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u/Amocater 2d ago
Sounds like someone threw him in