Random Terrifying Stories Of Pets Who Turned On Their Owners (18 items)

• 

  (#1) Travis The Chimpanzee Disfigured A Woman

  Travis the Chimpanzee became famous after he appeared on TV with his owner Sandra Herold. In 2009, Herold called her friend Charla Nash for help getting the 200-pound chimp back into his cage.

  But when Travis saw Nash, he attacked. Herold tried to stop Travis with a knife, which only angered him more. She called 911 and police arrived, which led to Travis ripping off the door of one of the police cars. An officer shot Travis, ending the chimp's rampage.

  Nash eventually received a settlement from Herold's estate and has undergone extensive reconstructive surgery.
• 

  (#2) Scarface The Pitbull Mauled His Owner Over A Sweater

  A Florida woman and her family were accosted by her pet pitbull after she tried to make him wear a sweater.

  The pitbull named Scarface went after Brenda Guerrero, 52, in her Tampa home on New Year's Day in 2017. When her husband Ismael stepped in to help her, the dog turned on him. The couple's 22-year-old son tried to intervene but failed to stop the dog.

  The three eventually managed to escape, leaving the dog outside. Animal Control officers were called to the home and had to subdue the dog with a Taser. Officials said Scarface was "pretty aggressive." Sounds like an understatement. 
• 

  (#3) Teddy The Black Bear Killed His Owner While She Cleaned His Cage

  The Walz family of Allentown, PA, had raised their 350-pound black bear Teddy since it was a cub. But even so, the bear attacked and killed Kelly Ann Walz as she was cleaning his cage. She made the mistake of cleaning the cage while Teddy was still in it, which apparently set him off. Neighbor children saw the incident, and their father shot Teddy.

  Authorities soon discovered that Kelly's husband's license to keep and sell exotic animals had expired.
• 

  (#4) A Hoarder Was Bitten By His Pet Black Widow

  A resident of Dortmund, Germany, Mark Voegel lived a solitary life in a small apartment, keeping the company only of the numerous insects and snakes he collected as pets. It was one of these, a black widow spider, that caused his demise. In the roughly two weeks it took for him to be found, his menagerie feasted on him.

  Hundreds of spiders, lizards, and snakes - along with countless termites - had consumed him, with webs draping his body, and bits of him scattered all around the apartment.
• 

  (#5) A Pet Deer Gored Its Owner

  Texas resident Gerald Rushton kept a 500-pound red stag deer in a pen in his backyard. Despite the fact that deer are illegal to keep in Texas and extremely dangerous, Rushton was attempting to domesticate the animal and keep it as a pet. The attempt failed, as the deer gored and trampled Rushton to death.

  Game wardens arrived on the scene and put the deer down, but Rushton could not be saved.
• 

  (#6) Gypsy The Burmese Python Strangled A Toddler

  In 2009, Jaren Hare and Charles Darnell owned a pet python named Gypsy, and its cage was only covered by a quilt. The Florida residents insisted on keeping it, and the snake escaped, wrapping itself around Hare's two-year-old daughter and killing her. 

  Animal experts believed the snake hadn't been fed in a month and was severely underweight when it tried to eat the girl. Hare and Darnell were arrested, and while their attorney tried to argue that the snake had always been docile, a jury convicted them of third-degree murder, manslaughter, and child neglect. They were each sent to prison for 12 years.
• 

  (#7) A Pet Mountain Lion Attacked A Child In Texas

  Amber Michelle Couch, had already received citations from the animal control department of Odessa, TX, related to her 150-pound pet mountain lion. The animal wasn't current on his vaccinations and his cage was too small for his size. Not only that, but the gaps in between the bars were too wide - a safety hazard to anyone who got close.

  In October 2011, a young boy got too close to the cage and the lion jabbed a paw through the gaps, slashing the child's face and his left side. The child survived, but the lion was put down.
• 

  (#8) Humphrey The Hippo Ate His Owner

  In 2011, former South African Army major Marius Els was savagely bitten by his pet hippopotamus, Humphrey. Els had adopted the 1.2-ton creature when it was just five months old, after the animal was rescued from a flood, and had attempted to domesticate it. "Humphrey's like a son to me, he's just like a human," he told a reporter earlier in the year. "There's a relationship between me and Humphrey and that's what some people don't understand."

  Humphrey had already done his share of damage, breaking out of his pen many times, chasing golfers, and more. African authorities caution people not to keep hippos as pets, as they're impossible to train, can run 30 miles per hour, and cause more deaths than almost every other wild animal in the country combined.

   
• 

  (#9) A Camel In Heat Trampled Its Owner

  Australian Pam Weaver was given a camel for her 60th birthday, which isn't so strange given that she owned a large property full of cattle and sheep, as well. Of course, cows and sheep aren't camels. Shortly after starting its life as a pet, the camel repeatedly attempted to become amorous with the family’s pet goat.

  Then one evening, disaster struck, as the camel reportedly tried to mate with Weaver, during which the animal knocked her over and lay on top of her, smothering her.
• 

  (#10) Simba The Pet Lion Bit His Owner

  Illinois resident Al Abell kept a brood of exotic animals in a small zoo he called Cougar Bluff Enterprise, including a nearly 400-pound African lion called Simba. Abell was usually careful in the handling of his exotic pets, but one afternoon he made a fatal mistake - he forgot to lock the door to the secondary pen that he put the lion in when cleaning its cage.

  The details surrounding Abell’s death are uncertain, but Abell's wife returned to the property to find him missing, the lion roaming free, and the other animals on the farm agitated. What followed was a tense standoff between local police and the lion, which ended with Simba shot dead by assault rifles. Abell's body was found near the animal cage, having bled to death from a massive bite in his leg.
• 

  (#11) A Pit Viper Bit Its Owner

  Cincinnati woman Alexandria Hall, who kept a menagerie of reptiles in her home, died after her highly venomous urutu pit viper bit her in 2004. After the bite, Hall was conscious enough to drive herself to the hospital but passed away almost a week later. Local police and herpetologists from the Cincinnati Zoo entered her home and found a number of exotic animals in cages, along with nearly a dozen venomous snakes.
• 

  (#12) Pet Wolf Dogs Tore Their Owner Apart

  Pennsylvania woman Sandra Piovesan kept nine half-wolf, half-dog hybrids as pets, insisting they gave her "unqualified love." She lived alone with dozens of animals, including the wolf dogs. She was found dead in the animals' enclosure with multiple injuries, and the wolf dogs were put down.
• 

  (#13) A Man Was Trampled By His Pet Bull

  A day before his 53rd birthday, Pennsylvania man Ricky D. Weinhold was killed by his one-ton pet bull. Investigators found he'd suffered a number of devastating injuries from the hooves and head of the bull and was likely trampled to death. The bull had already injured Weinhold a year earlier, and his friends pleaded with him to get rid of it. He did not. 
• 

  (#14) A Woman Was Eaten By Her Dogs

  An unnamed woman in Arkansas was apparently an animal hoarder who kept at least 50 dogs, all of which were underfed and unvaccinated. When the woman unexpectedly died, the dogs ate her body. Most of the dogs had to be put down.
• 

  (#15) A Farmer Was Devoured By His Pet Pigs

  Family members of Oregon farmer Terry Vance Garner were shocked to discover his dentures and undisclosed body parts in his pig enclosure several hours after Garner went missing. Authorities think Garner either suffered cardiac arrest and fell into the pen or was knocked over by the huge animals before being eaten. The investigation dragged on for months, and never produced a conclusive verdict as to whether the animals killed Garner or simply ate him after he passed on.

  In a strange addendum to the story, police later raided Garner's farm and arrested his son on multiple drugs and weapons violations.
• 

  (#16) A Man Kept A Tiger In A Tiny Apartment

  Antoine Yates lived in a small apartment in Harlem, New York, in 2003. But that didn't stop him from owning a fully grown pet tiger and an alligator. 

  In September 2003, Yates went to the hospital with injuries he claimed were caused by his pitbull. His injuries and an anonymous tip raised the suspicions of the authorities. What's most surprising is that many of the people living in Yates's apartment building knew he had a tiger in his apartment but had not reported it (except for one who had complained about tiger pee coming in through the ceiling). Both animals were taken to a shelter.
• 

  (#17) A Man Was Eaten By His Pet Lizards

  Delaware man Ronald Huff was a lover of exotic lizards. So when he died in 2002 in his apartment, it was the lizards he collected over the years that eventually ate him. 

  Investigators said Huff kept Nile monitor lizards as pets - a medium-sized lizard with sharp teeth that can eat small animals. Huff's family became concerned about him when he didn't show up for work, prompting police to check his apartment. They said the lizards feasting on his body were acting aggressively but didn't go as far to say they were the cause of his death. 
• 

  (#18) A Pet Chimp Terrorized A French Family

  Pépée the chimpanzee was the pet of French singer Léo Ferré and was treated like a member of the family. But unlike many beloved pets who receive love and affection, Pépée was known to throw tantrums, terrorize house guests, and once even kidnapped a human baby. 

  The animal often bit Ferré 's step-daughter and was so horrible to house guests people stopped visiting the family. A servant quit because of Pépée. Finally, the chimp suffered a fall and had to be put down. 

New Random Displays    Display All By Ranking