Jump to content

Burned Waffles the flop tongued giraffe is remembered as a friend to kids and a best man at wedding (VA zoo fire kills 2 giraffes)


clapclapclap

Recommended Posts

Domesticated violence?  A new unnamed giraffe shows up and suddenly both are dead in an unsolved barn fire.  #WafflesDidntKillHimself

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/waffles-giraffe-fire-death/2021/03/09/01573aa8-80f7-11eb-9ca6-54e187ee4939_story.html

Spoiler

 

The zookeeper said the call came around 5:30 p.m. Monday: A barn that housed the Roer’s Zoofari’s star attraction, Waffles the giraffe, and a new companion, was ablaze. Three cheetahs and about 20 chinchillas, ferrets and tropical birds were also inside.

Vanessa Roer asked the zoo’s chief operating officer to go to the scene since he was closer. When Mike Kerr arrived, Roer said he raced inside and freed the cheetahs and smaller animals from a part of the barn that was filling with smoke.

Roer credited Kerr with a “heroic” effort, but Waffles and the other giraffe perished in the flames that engulfed the large, two-story barn. In the time since, Waffles’s death has produced an outpouring of grief from hundreds who were touched — and sometimes slobbered on — by the giraffe. The zoo’s Facebook page has been flooded with tributes. The cause of the blaze remains under investigation.

“Obviously, Waffles is not our pet, but in one way Waffles is the pet of so many children in Northern Virginia,” said Gillian Giannetti, who had taken her 5-year-old daughter, Fiona, to see Waffles as many as 50 times. “It seems like a whole community of people have been touched by him.”

A turtle that used a Lego wheelchair to heal is released in Maryland

Giannetti said she was dreading telling Fiona about the giraffe’s death. The girl had a giraffe stuffed animal that was her favorite, and it was always the one she selected when she went on trips. Giannetti lamented that it was one more blow for children who shad (sic) spent a year away from school and have been unable to hug grandparents or other loved ones because of the coronavirus.

Rachel Rozner said she and her husband were also devastated.

After the Herndon couple’s wedding was delayed by covid-19 last year, they decided to hold it at the zoo and include Waffles as their best man. Rozner said her then fiance had become “obsessed” with the giraffe after meeting him at an event and they thought it would be silly and fun to make him part of the wedding party. The zoo obliged.

On the big day, Rozner said, Waffles munched on the flowers on their wedding canopy and slobbered on the officiant, but all in all, everyone had a blast. In one photo, Waffles is seen pushing his nose underneath the wedding canopy from his pen next door.

“It was 2020, and everybody had been in the pandemic so long, we wanted people to feel something different,” Rozner said. “Everyone left feeling so good that day.”

There were others mourning, too.

Waffles, who suffered a fall and jaw injury before being acquired by the zoo in 2016, had a condition where his tongue lolled out of his mouth, Roer said. Zookeepers regularly coated it with ointment during the winter to keep the skin from cracking.

Roer said another girl with a giraffe toy had told her mother that the tongue “wasn’t right.” Roer said the girl’s family affixed a new tongue to match the way Waffles’s hung out of his mouth.

Another day, Roer said she was watching the zoo’s security cameras when she became concerned about a teenager’s interactions with Waffles. She was worried that the giraffe was being abused, but when she went to check, she realized something very different was going on. The boy, 14, was nonverbal and autistic. He was rubbing Waffles’s horns, known as ossicones.

“He had made this connection with Waffles,” Roer said. “It was really remarkable to see.”

Fairfax County fire officials said Tuesday they were still trying to determine what caused the blaze, but Roer said it may have started with a heater used to warm the animals in the barn on chilly nights. She said it appeared the fire began in the portion of the barn that housed the giraffes.

Fire crews responded to the scene around 5:30 p.m. Monday and fought the blaze for about 45 minutes before it was brought under control. Fire officials and Roer said they did not have an estimate for the damage, but the barn was nearly destroyed.

In 2016, Roer and her husband acquired Zoofari, formerly known as the Reston Zoo. Under previous ownership, the zoo had a troubled history that included a former zookeeper being convicted of animal abuse. The most recent available federal inspection of Roer’s Zoofari, which was from 2019, shows no issues.

Roer said Waffles was a 5-year-old reticulated giraffe, the kind with a distinctive pattern of large brownish spots. The zoo will remain closed through Friday, and Roer said she is making a grief counselor available to the staff.

Roer said the zoo had been searching for a companion for Waffles for years, before finding one in recent weeks. They had yet to name the other male, but in the days before his death Waffles got to run in the yard with the other giraffe.

“Waffles was Roer’s Zoofari,” Roer said.

 

 

Back in the day:

 

DQXf2fsW4AAhBOn?format=jpg&name=small

spacer.png

Yeah, kinda prone to smoke inhalation.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by clapclapclap
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



×
×
  • Create New...