When animals that are trained to "perform" for our entertainment, attack their handlers 9 times out of 10 I am inclined to believe that the handler had it coming.
I draw a distinction between an animal taking a swipe at you, from an elephant making a concerted effort to chase you around the circus tent, forgoing all of the much easier and more accessible victims that are going hysterical and running for their lives all around it just to belly flop on you. I am rooting on that elephant like people root for the "face" at a professional wrestling match.
So when I read in the Miami Herald that a 1,400-pound-camel working the kiddie-ride detail at Miami's Metro zoo waited until he was shielded from the view of the children before he hoofed the trainer in the head and then galloped on his prone body I knew something was up.
Then I read that it didn't stop there.
The camel actually got down on the ground and repeatedly rolled over him just to make sure that he finished the job. ''The camel actually got down and rolled over him,'' said Ron Magill, Metro zoo's communications director. ``It only takes a few seconds for a 1,400-pound animal to do some substantial damage.''
Employees at the zoo came to his aid and helped paramedics airlift him to the Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center for treatment.
To ad more credibility to my assumption of the trainer "got what he had coming", apparently all the other employees had to do to subdued the camel was to grab the camel's lead and it calmed right down.
