A woman from Tzaneen was kicked to death by a giraffe on a Limpopo game farm at the weekend, Beeld newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Merika Engelbrecht, 25, was found dead on Saturday morning after she went for a walk with her two dogs.

Her brother, Hannes Visser, said the family was visiting the game farm to celebrate their mother's 50th birthday and Engelbrecht and her husband, Juan's, first wedding anniversary.

Visser said she went for a walk early on Saturday morning with the two dogs and it was suspected that one of the dogs ran in the direction of a herd of giraffe.

There was a cow and calf in the herd and trackers found the footprints of a dog.

"It seems as if she grabbed the dog and tried to protect it. That was when the giraffe kicked her from the back in the neck," said Visser.

"Her neck was broken. She died instantly."

The family went looking for her after one of the dogs arrived back at the house.

Both dogs sustained some bruises but were otherwise fine. - Sapa

Dying to protect a dog...

They are a dying breed.lol

quote:

Originally posted by boerbokrib:
They are a dying breed.lol

Extremely poor taste.

quote:

Originally posted by boerbokrib:
They are a dying breed.lol

That's not funny at all. Very inappropriate.

Funny as hell, but still entirely inappropriate.

JPK

I was told by a PH to approach them carefully after they are down, they will swing their head like a club, and can do some serious damage, and they can kick too.

I had a friend who was injured by a small giraffe in Zimbabwe on a farm. She was told that the young giraffe was people friendly and when she approached it, it kicked her breaking one of her arms with a compound fracture. It did some other damage to her as well and they had to drive her into South Africa and to Johannesburg where she was hospitalized for a couple of weeks and surgery performed on her arm to repair the damage. No laughing matter to me. My sincerest condolences to the young woman's family.

quote:

Originally posted by JPK:
Funny as hell, but still entirely inappropriate.

JPK

not funny and crudely inappropriate. bet if it was his sister who was dead, he wouldn't be joking about it.