This sound is going to haunt me for some time.
By this point, we’re all well aware of the number of tourons (tourist morons) that visit the many great national parks this country has to offer each year.
Who can forget this guy laying in front of a bison at Yellowstone or this idiot nearly getting gored at Jasper after walking right up to an elk?
These encounters mainly happen because most people are in close proximity to these majestic creatures for the first time in their lives, and while there’s no beating the experience of seeing great American fauna in their natural habitat, there’s options outside of national parks to see all sorts of animals, including drive through zoos.
Now, I’ve been to a drive through zoo and honestly it was awesome (shoutout the Lazy 5 Ranch in Mooresville, NC) but there was something that was absolutely stressed to you as you began your visit…
Keep your whole body inside the car at all times.
This is a lesson a young kid learned the hard way in a terrifying video at the Wild Animal Park in Chittenango, New York a few years ago.
The day was probably one of the best of his life up to the point this video starts, with him getting the chance to see and feed all sorts of creatures, like camels, zebras, ostriches, and the infamous fluffy cows that get so many people in trouble.
The video begins with a bison approaching a car with a few people, including the young child, hanging out of the windows. All appears normal at first, the kid trying to give the bison a few bits of food, when seemingly out of nowhere the bison drops a horn and rams it into the kid’s head, sending it bouncing off the car’s frame.
I mean, it sounded bad. Like super, super bad…
Fortunately, we were told the child was fine (proof of how resilient kids are) but my goodness I thought we were about to witness a decapitation.
According to Michael Benny, a reporter for Syracuse based CBS5, the zoo removed this particular bison from the drive through area, but it wasn’t the parks first such incident. The city had apparently previously sued the park for operating without proper permitting and an animal had apparently rammed a vehicle with kids inside.
The park has refuted the operating without proper permits claim, saying it was a zoning issue.
Regardless of anything else, let’s be thankful this kid was okay, because my goodness that sound is still echoing in my ears.
