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"A Ugandan hunter is tranquilizing gorillas and dressing them in clown suits" — the origins of a crazy story that lives on [1]
['Mark Frauenfelder']
Date: 2024-03-14
I'm currently reading Robert Anton Wilson's Cosmic Trigger Volume III. On page 93 he mentions the following story:
In the August-September 1994 issue of the Fortean Times, I read about an alleged "madman" in Uganda, who certainly belongs in this book. I do not know if the Fortean Times editors themselves want to label this creative and imaginative chap "mad" or just picked up the term while condensing and paraphrasing a story about his exploits which they cite from the Coventry Evening Telegraph, 24 February 1994. Anyway, "mad," "eccentric" or just a unique case of artistic enthusiasm combined with insensitivity, this Ugandan has a truly original hobby.
He goes about in the jungle, you see, with a tranquilizer gun. When he spots a gorilla, he fires — pow! (Have you ever gotten hit with one of those things? Imagine what it feels like ….) The gorilla sinks to the jungle floor, "out like a light" — just like you or me after too many Irish whiskeys — and the culprit then inflicts his own divine imagination upon the helpless creatures. He dresses them in clown suits before they can wake up and object to this undignified proceeding. Then he blithely skips off through the under-brush to lie low for a while before seeking further "subjects" (or victims) for his strange art.
So far the game wardens haven't caught him. I know some Animal Rights activists in California who would gladly tar and feather him and then hang him by the neck. His "art," if we must call it that, offends New Age sensibilities even more than wearing animal hides or skins as clothing.
On 16 February 1995 I heard on KPIG (107.5) that this ritual or artwork continues. The gorillas cannot remove the clown suits unaided, and the wardens do re-tranquilize and unclown them. "We are dealing with a very sick mind," the chief warden told reporters.
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