They Left the Funeral and Picked Up Their Knives

They allegedly left the funeral and grabbed their knives and clubs, determined to exact revenge for a man's death. A slaughter followed. The BBC reports each of the 292 crocodiles that lived at a crocodile sanctuary in West Papua, Indonesia, were killed on Saturday, and it's possible the villagers who participated in the attack could be charged. The mob reportedly first descended on the sanctuary's office after a local man was said to have been attacked and killed by a crocodile there Friday morning. Officials say the villagers then slaughtered the protected saltwater and New Guinea crocodiles, which ranged from babies to 6.5-feet adults.

Reuters and the Jakarta Post report it's believed the man, named Sugito and variously identified as 31 or 48, was harvesting grass to be used as feed for his cattle when the attack happened. The next day "the crocodiles were caught and dragged outside and stabbed to death. It was so horrid to see," the Post quotes a local as saying. "The crocodile slaughter violated the law on destroying others' property," says the head of Indonesia's Natural Resources Conservation Agency, per NPR, of the crime that was committed; the farm was privately operated. (More animal attack stories.)