https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/security-guard-endures-agonising-suicide-32548620

ByVassia BarbaUS News Reporter
17:42, 9 Apr 2024
A man ended his life by having snakes bite him after authorities
discovered he had illegally imported exotic animals, authorities said.

Security guard Marius Joubert, 28, died agonisingly after being bitten
by his own snakes following his arrest by police in South Africa. The
unfortunate event occurred in Hennenman, a town approximately 100
miles north of the city of Bloemfontein.

Joubert had been under investigation for burglary and theft. Concerns
arose when police planned to search his home, suspecting him of
illegal activities involving exotic animals. Joubert, realizing the
severity of the situation, reportedly opted for a drastic end rather
than facing potential long-term imprisonment.

During the police visit to his residence, officers were taken aback to
discover over 60 snakes, along with other exotic creatures such as a
crocodile, iguanas, monitors, tarantulas, hedgehogs, and ferrets.
Unbeknownst to the officers, Joubert used the opportunity to
deliberately provoke his snakes into biting him, leading to his death.

Authorities later confirmed that Joubert intentionally subjected
himself to the lethal venom of his snakes. Despite efforts to save
him, including a rushed trip to the hospital, the lack of appropriate
antivenom led to his death.

A source close to the investigation said: "[Joubert] knew the offences
he would be charged with would be much more serious and that many of
the snakes and animals he had could put him behind bars for 25 years.
?He asked if he could feed his snakes and once the cuffs were off he
stuck his hands in two cages and was bitten by two snakes in the wrist
area and then was restrained.

"We know one of the snakes that bit him was an Indochinese Spitting
Cobra which would have put a s****load of venom in him but we don’t
know what the other snake was. ?[...] He was about to be released on a
warning until his court date then he started to appear very unwell.
?Then he collapsed [...] but as the spitting cobra is not native to
South Africa there was no anti-venom. ?

What's strange about this story beyond the suicde-by-snake angle is that authorities reported that the exotic critters were severely neglected.

Why on earth might this now-late someone who was so fascinated by these animals go to all the trouble (and expense!) of collecting them under the notice of the local legal radar...only to then not care for them?

Meanwhile, last week Drudge had that story about the underground monkey-torture crowd who buy the videos which are produced in the Far East. (And back in the late 80s, I wondered if that beating-the-monkey's-brains-out-for-dinner Middle East restaurant scene in one of the "Faces of Death" pseudo-documentaries was one of the many staged sequences which FofD tried to pass off as authentic. And in Los Angeles, several video-rental personnel told me FofD was an ever-popular series of tapes.)

BRYAN STYBLE/Florida

OK, it turns out the "Faces of Death" monkey-bashing footage WAS indeed faked, at least according to whoever wrote Wikipedia's coverage of the lurid video series.

The least they could have done was add a disclaimer to the credits: "No monkeys were harmed in the making of this film." Hey, even PETA and The Humane Society might even granted their seals of approval.

(And yes, it did occur to me when inquiring of those video rental guys in L.A. how frequently the series was rented, that my own quite-possibly-unhealthy interest was adding to those numbers, inasmuch as I screened all four (or five?) of them eventually.)

BRYAN STYBLE/Florida
=================
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faces_of_Death

On Tue, 9 Apr 2024 19:30:11 +0000, bryan_styble
<radioactiveseattle@hotmail.com> wrote:

>What's strange about this story beyond the suicde-by-snake angle is that authorities reported that the exotic critters were severely neglected.
>
>Why on earth might this now-late someone who was so fascinated by these animals go to all the trouble (and expense!) of collecting them under the notice of the local legal radar...only to then not care for them?

Mental illness, not much different from cat ladies who have hordes of
cats that live in squalor.

In the previous article, David Carson <davidc@wa-wd.com> wrote:
> [...]

This is a *terribly* written article. (That's not your fault, of
course.)

> Joubert had been under investigation for burglary and
> theft. Concerns arose when police planned to search his home,
> suspecting him of illegal activities involving exotic animals.

I mean, it's English. It's not necessarily syntactically even
incorrect. But good Lord, that's just the worst diction I've seen in
a "real" paper in some time. I particularly expected better of the
British.

> During the police visit to his residence, officers were taken aback
> to discover over 60 snakes, along with other exotic creatures such
> as a crocodile, iguanas, monitors, tarantulas, hedgehogs, and
> ferrets. Unbeknownst to the officers, Joubert used the opportunity
> to deliberately provoke his snakes into biting him, leading to his
> death.

Uh ... *what* "oppportunity"? (It's explained later in the article
but that is not an excuse.)

> Authorities later confirmed that Joubert intentionally subjected
> himself to the lethal venom of his snakes. Despite efforts to save
> him, including a rushed trip to the hospital, the lack of appropriate
> antivenom led to his death.

A lack of anti-*venin* did not "lead to his death." Snake bites led
to his death. It was perhaps unavoidable because of that lack. Maybe
the lack rendered his death inevitable. But a hospital that's out of,
or doesn't stock, a particular medication doesn't "le[a]d to" anyone's
death.

That's just a couple of highlights. I could go on for pages, but I'm
not trying to conduct an English seminar here; I was just so appalled
by the prose and structure of the article that I had to say something.
--
_+_ From the catapult of |If anyone objects to any statement I make, I am
_|70|___:)=}- J.D. Baldwin |quite prepared not only to retract it, but also
\ / baldwin@panix.com|to deny under oath that I ever made it.-T. Lehrer
***~~~~----------------------------------------------------------------------

Excellent analysis there, J.D.!; wish everyone had your standards regarding our glorious English language.

(Now I gotta get back to poring over the industry trade papers, seeing when and if anyone is producing "FACES OF DEATH: The Next Generation".)

BRYAN STYBLE/Florida

In article <uv51pg$lk$2@reader1.panix.com>,
J.D. Baldwin <news@baldwin.users.panix.com> wrote:
>
>In the previous article, David Carson <davidc@wa-wd.com> wrote:
>> [...]
>
>This is a *terribly* written article. (That's not your fault, of
>course.)

True, but what of it?

FWIW, I often see this sort of phrasing in articles arising from South
Africa and India (and probably others, but these are the two that come most
to mind). These are places that speak English, but not natively.

It is hard to say more on this topic without risking being labeled a
"something-ist". And, no one (least of all, me) wants that.

--
Pensacola - the thinking man's drink.

bryan_styble <radioactiveseattle@hotmail.com> wrote:
> OK, it turns out the "Faces of Death" monkey-bashing footage WAS indeed faked, at least according to whoever wrote Wikipedia's coverage of the lurid video series.
>
> The least they could have done was add a disclaimer to the credits:
> "No monkeys were harmed in the making of this film."

Wasn't the pretense that all creatures shown dying really
DID die their entire marketing strategy?

-=-=-
The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.

In the previous article, Kenny McCormack <gazelle@shell.xmission.com>
wrote, quoting me:
> >This is a *terribly* written article. (That's not your fault, of
> >course.)
>
> True, but what of it?

Some of us still think the English language is worth protecting and
preserving.

> FWIW, I often see this sort of phrasing in articles arising from
> South Africa and India (and probably others, but these are the two
> that come most to mind). These are places that speak English, but
> not natively.

I've been to, and across, South Africa and the primarily English-
speaking pockets are small. It's much more Dutch / Bantu tribal
languages. Whoever wrote that article speaks way better English than
I speak Dutch (or Xhosa or Kiswahili or Portuguese ...) -- but the
Daily Mirror is *based in the UK*. Even if the stringer or reporter
filing the story is a little wobbly in usage, isn't there some
*editor* somewhere in the loop to step in and fix it? (The answer,
sadly, is "probably not" and I think that's worth lamenting.)

And never mind the language and diction -- nothing excuses the
structural error of writing "Joubert used the opportunity [...]" *two
paragraphs before* describing what the opportunity for mischief was.

> It is hard to say more on this topic without risking being labeled a
> "something-ist". And, no one (least of all, me) wants that.

I'd have to have some minimal respect for the labeler to takey any
real notice of such a thing. Being bad at English isn't a character
flaw, but neither is it insignificant when one is writing for
publication in an English-language paper.
--
_+_ From the catapult of |If anyone objects to any statement I make, I am
_|70|___:)=}- J.D. Baldwin |quite prepared not only to retract it, but also
\ / baldwin@panix.com|to deny under oath that I ever made it.-T. Lehrer
***~~~~----------------------------------------------------------------------