Heroic Man Jumps Into Zoo Enclosure To Save Drowning Chimp
Back in 1990, a 135-pound chimpanzee named Jo-Jo slipped
into the water at the Detroit Zoo after being chased by another chimp. Dozens of
visitors and zoo workers watched as he thrashed around helplessly. There was a
cable in the enclosure, designed to keep chimps from falling into the water,
but on this fateful day, it didn’t do its job.
33-year-old truck driver Rick Swope stood there in horror
alongside his wife and three children. He saw the look on the 18-year-old
chimp’s face and knew he couldn’t just stand back and do nothing. It was as if
Jo-Jo was begging for an onlooker to come and rescue him — and that’s exactly
what Swope did.
Now, think about this: chimps have up to five times the
strength of humans; the zoo enclosure was forbidden territory for visitors; and
the enclosure was full of other apes who could turn aggressive at any moment.
But without any hesitation whatsoever, Swope left his family and jumped into
the forbidden ape enclosure. He grabbed onto the drowning creature but quickly
lost his grip. Despite the fact the water was only five feet deep, it was so
dirty he couldn’t see through it.
Visitors cheered on Swope as he grabbed Jo-Jo once again and
pulled him onto the slippery shore. “He was pretty lifeless, but you could see
he was still alive,” Swope told the Chicago Tribune. “He was looking at me. I
think he knew what was going on.”
Thanks to the 33-year-old truck driver, Jo-Jo survived and
recovered.
“It was no big deal, you know,” he said. “It didn’t take an
exceptional person to do it. If it did, I couldn’t have done it.”
Sorry, Rick Swope — but you’re absolutely a hero.
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Source: Little Things