BreakTheChain.org
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What A Croc!Date Added: Sept. 20, 2005
A favorite pasttime on the Internet appears to be taking what are in their own rights very interesting photographs and applying them to the news of the day to see how many people we can fool. This is just one of the many old photo chains that have been dusted off to fool people anew in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Now this is a Crocodile ! This crocodile was found in New Orleans swimming down the street. 21 FT long, 4,500 lbs, around 80 years old minimum. Specialists said that he was looking to eat humans because he was too old to catch animals. This crocodile was killed by the army last Sunday at 3:00 pm, currently he is in the freezer at the Azur hotel. The contents of it's stomach will be analyzed this Friday at 2:30pm.
The photographs above are real, but they weren't taken in New Orleans, nor were they taken recently. They depict the capture of a giant crocodile on July 6, 2003, in Pointe Noir, in the Republic of Congo. The text above is a loosely updated version of the text that originally accompanied the photos. Subject: Fw: Monster in Pointe Noire This crocodile was on the beach in front of the Petroleum club, Plage Sportive In Pointe Noire. 21 FT long, 4,500 lbs, around 80 years old minimum. Specialists said that he was looking to eat humans because he was too old to catch animals. For the past few months in some villages close to Pointe Noire people were complaining that some people in their villages have been disappearing, could be this crocodile. This crocodile was killed by the army last Sunday at 3:00 pm, currently he is in the freezer at the Azur hotel. Even the original version exaggerated the facts. According to media accounts, the Pointe Noire Crocodile was a giant, but not quite the behemoth portrayed in the chain letter. The real croc was around 50 years old, about 16 feet long and weighed a "mere" 1,874 pounds (that's still huge, but a far cry from two and a quarter tons). Also,the croc was not stored in a hotel's freezer until it could be dissected. Rather, the mayor of Pointe Noire, ordered the animal be sent to a taxidermist and preserved for its tourist value (the residents would have preferred to have eaten him). Just days after the New Orleans version of this chain started circulating, one recipient apparently realized one major problem with this chain - namely that you'd be much likely to find an alligator in the New Orleans area than a crocodile. Rather than recognizing the obvious doubt this discrepancy casts of the validity on the chain's claims, that person opted instead to update the text: Now this is a Gator ! This alligator was found in New Orleans swimming down the street. 21 FT long, 4,500 lbs, around 80 years old minimum. Specialists said that he was looking to eat humans because he was too old to catch animals. This gator was killed by the army last Sunday at 3:00 pm, currently he is in the freezer at the Azur hotel. The contents of it's stomach will be analyzed this Friday at 2:30pm. Break this Chain. References: About.com, Snopes.com |
