[quote=USATODAY]
MADRID (AP) – Spain's King Juan Carlos has successfully undergone hip replacement surgery after tripping on stairs and fracturing bones around the joint while on an elephant hunting trip in Botswana, officials said Saturday. It was the monarch's fourth surgery in almost two years.
Botswana government spokesman Jeff Ramsay told the Associated Press that the 74-year-old was on a private visit up north in the Okavango area when he had the accident. "He was hunting for elephant. He has a permit," the spokesman said.
The fall occurred early Friday morning in the chalet where the head of state was staying, said Angel Villamor, spokesman for San Jose hospital in Madrid where the king had his operation.
Juan Carlos flew back and was driven straight to hospital after landing, a royal palace spokesman said. The palace also released a statement saying the king had sustained "a fracture in three fragments of the right hip, associated with osteoarthritis of that joint."
Spanish state broadcaster RTVE carried the news on its website accompanied by a photograph of the king, rifle in hand, standing next to a dead elephant while on a previous hunting trip with a Botswana-based safari company.
The latest incident drew criticism from some lawmakers at a time when Spain is on the verge of recession with close to 23 percent unemployment.
"It can't be said the head of state is losing sleep over the many thousands of young people who are unemployed," said Cayo Lara of the United Left party.
The surgery was the king's fourth since May 2010. Previously, a benign tumor has been removed from one of his lungs, in June last year he also underwent surgery on his right knee and then in September he had an operation to repair Achilles tendon damage.
This is not the first time the aging monarch's love of hunting has caused concern. In October 2006, a Russian governor launched an inquiry into reports that Juan Carlos had shot and killed a bear while on holiday near Moscow.
Vyacheslav Pozgalyov, governor of the Vologda region northeast of Moscow, had reportedly received a letter from the region's deputy hunting chief, Sergei Starostin, claiming a bear — named Mitrofan — had been fed honey mixed with vodka before being released near a site where the king was to hunt.
Starostin wrote that the local authorities had thus turned the king's hunting trip into a "disgusting fraud," Russia's top business daily Kommersant said.
Mitrofan, whom Starostin described as "a good-natured and joyful bear," was taken from his home at a local holiday resort and brought to the hunting place where they "generously fed him with vodka mixed with honey and pushed him into a field," the newspaper quoted the letter as saying.
The Spanish royal family has enjoyed hunting with firearms for decades, but has also experienced its share of gun-related tragedies.
The king's 13-year-old grandson, Felipe Juan Froilan, is currently recovering in a hospital after shooting himself in the foot accidentally with a shotgun.
The most serious shooting incident occurred in 1956 when Juan Carlos accidentally shot and killed his 14-year-old brother while handling a gun during a vacation visit to Estoril, Portugal.
The royal family has been the focus of much media attention in recent months on account of a judicial probe into whether Princess Cristina's husband, Inaki Urdangarin, used his privileged position to secure lucrative deals for a nonprofit foundation he ran, then fraudulently diverted some of the money for personal benefit.[/quote]
[url]http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/story/2012-04-14/spain-king-hip-surgery/54274362/1[/url]
Mitrofan, whom Starostin described as "a good-natured and joyful bear," was taken from his home at a local holiday resort and brought to the hunting place where they "generously fed him with vodka mixed with honey and pushed him into a field,"
God the mental image
[quote]The king's 13-year-old grandson, Felipe Juan Froilan, is currently recovering in a hospital after shooting himself in the foot accidentally with a shotgun.[/quote]
:v:
[QUOTE=A B.A. Survivor;35577003]:v:[/QUOTE]
He's not gonna have much of a foot left.
[QUOTE=zombini;35577143]He's not gonna have much of a foot left.[/QUOTE] Not all shotguns shoot 1337 50 cal buck shot like they do in call of duty
[QUOTE=ITokez;35577301]Not all shotguns shoot 1337 50 cal buck shot like they do in call of duty[/QUOTE]
That's hardly what i meant, i know how shotguns work, at really close, that load of shot works like a single round, ripping a big hole in whatever it hits. Next time you go to a firing range, test it, point blank range vs a piece of card board.
EDIT: Just thought it over, likely that he only hit the edge of his foot, but it's just as likely he hit the center of his foot.
point blank shotgun, especially if he was shooting buckshot, will just go right through a foot and not cause any hydrostatic shock.
if he was shooting slugs though, that shit would tear him up.
[quote]"He was hunting for elephant. He has a permit," the spokesman said[/quote]
From the elephants?
[QUOTE=ButtsexV3;35577484]point blank shotgun, especially if he was shooting buckshot, will just go right through a foot and not cause any hydrostatic shock.
if he was shooting slugs though, that shit would tear him up.[/QUOTE]
If anything, the opposite is true, the buckshot would spread slightly, dispersing more energy in a given area. Same principle of a frangible bullet. And what i said was that the round from the shotgun would function as a slug at point blank, considering there's a plastic cup to hold all the shot in place as it gets fired from the barrel.
EDIT: a friend of my dad's son accidentally shot himself in the foot with a .308 while hunting a few years back, it just went right through, fucked his foot to hell for half a year, but he recovered with most of the function in his foot.
[QUOTE=cecilbdemodded;35577531]From the elephants?[/QUOTE]
Yup.
[QUOTE=zombini;35577535]If anything, the opposite is true, the buckshot would spread slightly, dispersing more energy in a given area. Same principle of a frangible bullet. And what i said was that the round from the shotgun would function as a slug at point blank, considering there's a plastic cup to hold all the shot in place as it gets fired from the barrel.
EDIT: a friend of my dad's son accidentally shot himself in the foot with a .308 while hunting a few years back, it just went right through, fucked his foot to hell for half a year, but he recovered with most of the function in his foot.[/QUOTE]
I put a 5.56x45 through my foot and was back on it in 2 weeks, bullets aren't as bad as you think. it's all about shot placement and the foot isn't exactly a vital location
[editline]15th April 2012[/editline]
the buckshot would only spread if the shotgun wasn't choked, it would be contracting at that distance in most shotguns. a slug at that distance would give you about a half inch entry and 3/4ths exit
[editline]15th April 2012[/editline]
now if you were shot in the torso at that distance it would be a different matter entirely.
Hip replacements are great. I forget my leg is being held on by a stick of Titanium most of the time. Feels just like the real thing.
Serves him right for hunting elephants.
[editline]15th April 2012[/editline]
Box me for all I care, hunting animals for sport is fucking disgusting.
[QUOTE=Xeon06;35576991][img]http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02193/carlos_2193611b.jpg[/img][/QUOTE]
The most dangerous game, a passive mammal. What a snobby twat.
[QUOTE=Headhumpy;35577853]Serves him right for hunting elephants.
[editline]15th April 2012[/editline]
Box me for all I care, hunting animals for sport is fucking disgusting.[/QUOTE]
Yeah. IMO though, it's fine as long as you eat the animal(s) that you kill.
[QUOTE=Uncle Bourbon;35578291]Yeah. IMO though, it's fine as long as you eat the animal(s) that you kill.[/QUOTE]
Elephants are somewhat endangered though
Wouldn't hunting an elephant be the easiest thing ever?
i'm glad he can go back to living off tax payers' money and not doing anything productive at all :)
[QUOTE=DienDwemar;35578203]The most dangerous game, a passive mammal. What a snobby twat.[/QUOTE]
Too bad it's actually not that passive. Elephants often rage for no reason at all, they're known to kill humans for no reason.
The King of Spain is a really cool and chill guy. He had dinner with my father and grandfather once.
[QUOTE=joost1120;35579417]Too bad it's actually not that passive. Elephants often rage for no reason at all, they're known to kill humans for no reason.[/QUOTE]
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ4rqjg4NrM[/media]
I was actually watching this video just as I read that comment. [7:30 onward]
I agree that elephant hunting is getting out of hand, and should be stopped for a few years for the elephant populations to populate. I've got no issue nor quarrels with hunting, but everything on the carcass should at least have some use.
He accidentaly killed his own brother while hunting. That alone should've made him stop hunting forever.
Also, aren't there more common animals to hunt like deers or boars? Why hunt fucking elephants?
what an asshole
[QUOTE=Jorori;35580060]He accidentaly killed his own brother while hunting. That alone should've made him stop hunting forever.
Also, aren't there more common animals to hunt like deers or boars? Why hunt fucking elephants?[/QUOTE]
It's one of "The Big 5", the most important animals to take down in a Safari. This includes:
Leapord
Cape Buffalo*
Lion
Rhino
Elephant
*more dangerous than you'd think
How is this news? Some fat snobby "Monarch" who lives on peasants meager wages. Let him ramble unto a corner.
[QUOTE=Flash;35580331]How is this news? Some fat snobby "Monarch" who lives on peasants meager wages. Let him ramble unto a corner.[/QUOTE]
Yeah go proletariat fuck monarchies.
i hope he dies of an infection
[QUOTE=Jorori;35580060]He accidentaly killed his own brother while hunting. That alone should've made him stop hunting forever.
Also, aren't there more common animals to hunt like deers or boars? Why hunt fucking elephants?[/QUOTE]
His eyesight isn't what it used to be. He can aim in the general direction of an elephant from a distance and score a hit, he probably couldn't even see a boar in the underbrush if he was standing over it.
I didn't even know Spain still had a monarchy.
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