A wise man once said, “play stupid games, win stupid prizes.”
At this point, I’m convinced that people look at bison like very large dogs after seeing so many videos and hearing so many stories of people trying to walk up on and pet these 2,000 pound beasts. With that being said, this Utah resident learned this lesson the hard way, as he had to spend a full week in the hospital.
According to KUTV, Halen Carbajal was sent straight to the hospital after he was gored by a bison in a neighbor’s yard last month, after he tried to pet the creature.
He admittedly told the outlet that it was “definitely an idiot scenario.” It all went down when his girlfriend spotted the bison during an early Thanksgiving celebration:
“I crossed through the fence. I started walking back near the fence. By the time I got back to the fence, he had followed me all the way over, and I was like, ‘Oh that’s pretty cool.’
I kind of did want to pet him, so I was just being naïve about the whole thing. So I did that, and yeah, he just rocked me pretty good.”
Carbajal said he remembers the bison dipping its head with its horn, and sending it straight into him. He said he was then “flipped” by the creature. The bison gored him in his abdomen, creating an eight-inch laceration, a broken rib, a lacerated liver and a bruised lung.
Carbajal then had to spend seven days in the ICU in Utah Valley before being sent him with the help of a home health nurse.
He continued:
“You have to have a lot more reverence for big crazy beasts like that you know. You have to have a lot more reverence. There’s admiration and then there’s a level of respect you have to have with just keeping your distance.”
Needless to say, I’m sure Carbajal is counting his blessings, because although he had to go to the hospital the situation could’ve been MUCH worse.
