Lightning Kills Giraffe At Animal Kingdom

[jjcollins]

Disney's Animal Kingdom is mourning the loss of one of its animals this morning. Lightning struck and killed a giraffe there late Monday afternoon.

A deadly lighting strike is a rare accident for Disney's Animal Kingdom. But we're being told it's quite common for giraffe out in the wild, probably because they're the tallest things out there.

This deadly strike happened just after four o'clock Monday afternoon out at the Kilamanjaro Safari attraction.


A source with Animal Kingdom tells us three truckloads of Disney guests, that's about 90 people, were out on the Savannah and saw Betsy the giraffe struck and killed by lightning. She'd been with Disney since 1998 and had become one of the safari's most beloved animals.

The incident happened during a thunderstorm on Monday, but Disney says the worst of it didn't reach Betsy's area. Our source tells us that an on-site vet did an examination and determined Betsy died instantly and didn't even know what happened.

Those who witnessed the incident, Disney workers and admirers of Betsy, can rest easy knowing she didn't suffer.



jj........

 

[tkyes]

That is so sad!

 

[Blondie]

 

[preshi]

Wow... how sad for the guest to witness such a thing. Nature at it's ugliest I guess... poor Betsy.

 

[FOJMO]

I haven't heard nor read anything about this. What is your news source?

 

[WDWLVR]

Very sad.

 

[Rajah]

 

[Poohbear123]

This is why I RUN in doors when I see dark clouds starting to form. Lightening is NOTHING to play around with.

 

[Miss Jasmine]

Here's a link to a very brief blurb... http://www.wesh.com/travelgetaways/2352187/detail.html

How very sad. When we were there two weeks ago we had the Giraffes right near us, and got some fabulous pictures. I wonder if one of those was Betsy.

and here's a link to the OP's article: http://www.wftv.com/news/2351699/detail.html

 

[TwinMom7]

 

[J&D]

How sad!

Rest in Peace, Betsy!

 

[DanceBabe16]

So sad...

 

[catsrule]

 

[suzannews]

My neighbor is a manager at DAK and told me about this yesterday. We've had some horrible thunderstorms this summer, lightning hit my driveway Friday night. So sad.

 

[Mermaid02]

How sad. A 14 year old girl from Maine was struck by lightening and killed last weekend. She was playing soccer at the time in Canada.

When you hear thunder, even in the distance, you must think of it as a warning.

 

[Adrianna]

Very sad indeed. Did they know of the lightning, and have a chance to get the animals inside??

I just get VERY upset when animals get hurt that shouldn't have been. I am originally from Phila., and several years back, a day before Xmas eve one year, there was a fire at the Phila Zoo, where I had gone often, and ALL of the primates died. All of them. There were gorillas that were older than I am (now 35, then about 26 or so) there. I was so mad, it shouldn't have happened, and it really upset me.

Let's hope nothing like that happens again.

 

[scarlett873]

how sad

 

[Gette88]

Very sad
I'm from South Jersey & we go to the Phila. Zoo, alot. We love it there. I remember the fire on X-Mas eve. It was very sad.

 

[TigH]

Isn't that just so sad. I read about it on the WFTV site. Poor Betsy.

 

[Kitty 34]

How sad.