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- A Stuijt
- Retired South African medical journalist, ex-Sunday Times of Johannesburg.
SA farmer, 84, survives leopard attack, farm attack and Rommel's Army...
08:03 | 
Posted by
A Stuijt |
Boer Logan Estement, 84, survives leopard attack, stabbings during a farm attack and Rommel's army...
Sep 30 2008 Beeld journalist Buks Viljoen interviewed 84-year-old Lowveld farmer Logan Estement in his hospital bed yesterday - a man who can indeed tell a tale or three about surviving against all the odds, and they all just happen to be true...
On Monday, the fiesty old South African Lowveld-farmer was full of vim and vinegar at his Nelspruit Medi-Clinic hospital bed while describing yesterday's daylight-attack by a mangy, sickened, terrified leopard at the Marloth Park residential and holiday suburb next to the worldfamous Kruger wildlife reserve in South Africa, next to the Zimbabwean/Mozambiquan border.
Two of the old farmer's ribs were broken and he sustained deep scratches to his arms and chest while he grappled with the leopard, tearing it away from a family friend, Mrs Joey Labuschagne, 54.
It is very unusual to see a leopard at 10am in a residential area. They are very shy animals, night-time hunters, usually fearful of humans.
Veterinarians which examined the big cat after it had been sedated by game-rangers, said it was suffering extensively from mange - to such an extreme degree that they could not save it, but had to euthanise it. There will also be the usual routine precautionary examination to establish whether the creature had had rabies.
Estement grappled with the terrified animal yesterday-morning after it attacked a family friend at her Marloth Park home at 10am. The animal had jumped on Mrs Joey Labuschagne, 54, and bitten her just as she was getting out of his car. He, Joey and his wife Sheila, 68, were all in his car and had stopped by Joey's house for a quick rest-room stop when he and Joey ran smack-dab ran into the leopard, which had been hiding behind her house.
The animal ran right over him and jumped on Joey next to the car, biting her on the arm and grappling with her arm.
Mr Estement said he jumped on the leopard, got him in a firm grip around the neck and 'dondered it with my fists' so that the animal let go of Joey. ("Dondered' is an Afrikaans word which means to beat it ferociously, stomping it hard).
He ended up on his back with the animal standing over him, growling, and with the farmer kicking the creature with his heavy boots for a while. It then fled, hiding in a corner next to the house.
The animal was 'highly irritated' said Estement, and also very terrified of the crowd of people which had come running from all directions to try and help them.
The old man was very cheerful after his fight with the leopard -- telling journalists from his hospital bed that he felt very lucky: he had survived WWII, when he'd fought against Rommel's fierce regiments in North Africa. He 'd still had to lie about his age to sign up as a South African military volunteer for the Allied forces.
Three years ago, he survived a vicious armed attack by three armed men at his farm in Waterval-Boven, when he was stabbed and had ended up in a serious condition in hospital.
Mrs Labuschagne was reportedly also recovering well from the leopard bite, the hospital spokeswoman said. She denied claims from bystanders that she had tried to touch the animal in any way. The animal had attacked her just as she got out of the farmer's car.
http://www.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2402300,00.html
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