Famous Deaths Caused by Animals

An average of 123 people in the United States are killed by animals each year. The majority of these are from allergic reactions to bee and wasp stings, but a large number are caused by dogs and horses. The most lethal animal is actually the hippopotamus, which violently defends its territory and young. In recent years, there have been several famous deaths caused by animals. adparams.getadspec('c_billboard1');

Steve Irwin

In September 2006, Steve Irwin ("The Crocodile Hunter") was killed by a stingray while filming a documentary. Friends and family told the press that he "died doing what he loved." Although Irwin's job was dangerous, his death was the result of a freak accident. Stingray attacks are usually painful but rarely fatal; the exact number of recorded deaths is unknown, but it is likely less than thirty, which is the average number of people killed by horses each year in the United States alone.

Kenneth Pinyan

Unlike Irwin, Kenneth Pinyan became a celebrity only after his death. He was a zoophile who recorded sex acts with horses and posted them on the internet unde the pseudonym "Mr. Hands." In November 2005, he died of internal bleeding after having anal sex with a horse. The unusual circumstances of his death made him into an internet celebrity. In 2007, a sympathetic documentary about the case, Zoo, was shown at the Sundance Film Festival.

SS Bajwa

In October 2007, SS Bajwa, the Deputy Mayor of Dehli, India, died after falling off a balcony while attempting to fight off wild monkeys. The case received international attention because of its seemingly unusual circumstances, but in actuality wild monkeys are a serious problem in Dehli. Forced out of their natural habitat and finding easy food sources in cities, the monkeys invade buildings and occasionally attack humans.

U.S.S. Indianapolis

While sharks were not the sole cause of the tragedy of the U.S.S. Indianapolis during World War II, they contributed to the deaths of its crew, making it the worst naval disaster in the history of the United States.The ship was on its way to the Philippines after delivering the first atomic bomb when it was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine on July 30, 1945. The ship sank in shark-infested waters. Of the 900 men who survived the attack (only three-quarters of the original crew), nearly 600 died of shark attacks, hunger, and exposure.

Sources

• Hippos Kill More People than Any Other Animal from Did You Know?
• How Deadly are Stingrays? from Slate Magazine
• Human Deaths in the U.S. Caused by Animals from History Lists
• Monkeys Attack Dehli Politician from the BBC
• Steve Irwin: Death of a Crocodile Hunter from Time Magazine
• USS Indianapolis CA-35