January 28, 2020 • 37 mins
Regular animal stories are wonderful enough, but when animals lead amazing lives the stories become almost unbearably wonderful. You’ve been warned!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Stuff You should know, a production of five
Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Josh Clark, There's Charles w. Chub Bryan over there,
there's Jerry and uh. The stuff's right. Amazing animal that's right.
(00:25):
That well partially delight you, and if you're an animal
over should partially horrify you at times. If you don't
like animals, and you're probably gonna listen, I don't know,
you could be like, yeah, you probably wouldn't listen Amazing
Animal stories skip, but who would do that? One star? Yeah,
(00:52):
So we're talking animals today, and like we said, not
just animals, amazing animals because animals are great to talk about.
We've talked about um octopie and duck billed platypie and elephant.
I that we did the platypus I believe we have okay,
almost positive, If not, it's do this is so the
(01:14):
animals are funny to talk about. It's even more fun
to talk about animals that are accomplished. That's right. Okay.
You know I was at the playground the other day
and my daughter was playing with another little girl, which
is kind of one of the fun things about kids.
They just immediately bond with another kid and the girl
turned out to be a bar cup. I wish no.
(01:35):
This girl smashed a ladybug and said yeah, and the
parents went around. I was there and I was horrified,
and my daughter said, that wasn't nice. You shouldn't kill animals.
Good for you. And then this girl stomped an anthill
girl's kind of issues. Yeah, and I and you know what,
she found another ladybug and I said, don't touch that ladybug.
(01:58):
She said why not? I said, because you the last one? Yeah,
And I like felt fine, like admonishing this child that
was not mine. Did you wait until she turned around
and clapped by her ear to really startled her or
drive it home? No, but she did trip later on,
and under my breath I went, Karma, really, Yeah, she
was fine, And then above your breath you went, that's
right above my breath. Yeah. By the way, With Mike
(02:22):
the headless Chicken, which we're gonna start out with, I
couldn't remember how this existed in the annals of stuff.
You should know, because I knew it did, and I
thought it might have been one of our dumb videos.
But it turns out it was one of our great videos.
Which one it was? You did it? Dumb? Don't be
dumb on this. But surely we've talked about Mike before.
I thought we might have, but don't be dumb. Was
(02:42):
only it came up and it was great, weird. Oh,
thank you very much. We've done some cool videos together. Though.
Remember this day in history where like we yeered off
into like conjuring Satan for a little while, and like
we ended up in a different dimension. And I thought
those were great. So silly anyway, Um, okay, So, like
you said, we're talking about Mike the Headless Chicken. First,
(03:05):
that's right, which September n If you were in Colorado
and you happen to live near the Olsens, Lloyd and
Clara and Freud to Colorado, Yeah, Fruda, do you know
where that is? It's by Grand Junction, which I think
is you know where that is? I feel like I've
(03:25):
been West Colorado, like on the way to like all
those amazing national parks. Colorado is very varied. You think
of Colorado is just being this amazing mountain estate, which
it is in parts, but they're also like planes and
all sorts of stuff. That's where there's an ocean right
in the middle of it. Right, that's where Canyon National
(03:47):
Park or Canyon Land and Candy Land. That's where the
guy cut off his own arm in a d twenty
seven hours. James Franco. Sure. Yeah, So the Olsens were
farmers and they were killing birds. Lloyd would cut the
heads off of these chickens and his wife would clean
them up, because, after all, it was that's kind of
(04:07):
how the division of labor went back then. And he
would go in and sell these chickens at the market,
and they he went to gather up all the chickens,
and he got to one with no head that was
still alive, and he went, what into our nation. That's right,
that's a direct you should be dead. I saw that
for this one in particular, he he aimed to preserve
(04:31):
the neck as much as possible, so he just took
off the head. Right. He did a good job, I guess,
because I think his mother in law was coming over
for dinner and she liked fried chicken necks, so he
was trying to give her a fried chicken neck, just
taking the head off. The thing is this one was
still alive, and that's still live in the way that
a chicken will run around with its head cut off,
(04:53):
like everybody knows. Yeah, he was just being a chicken. Yeah,
so he did that. He ran around like a chicken
with his head cut off. But then he's stopped and
he started like pecking at the ground with his stump.
He started preening himself, basically acting like he still had
a head and like he wasn't planning on dying anytime soon.
That's right. So Lloyd said, let me put you in
(05:14):
this about this apple box overnight and just I assume
we'll get up in the morning and you'll be dead.
Then God will take his vengeance over the night I
want any more like you consider it a coffin, basically, right,
And he woke up in the morning and this chicken
was still alive, a rooster technically, So he said, what's
(05:38):
for breakfast? So he took this thing to that meat
market just to show everyone, like, you gotta see, this
is what anyone would have done, I think. And then
the word starts to spread. Everyone was amazed at this
headless chicken. Word starts to spread around fruit to Why
do I have a bad feeling we're pronouncing that wrong?
Is there any other way. You could pronounce that fru wide. Yeah,
(06:01):
that could be. I mean in Georgia they called Cairo
ki row, that's true, and Voyanna for Vienna. That's right. So, uh,
did you just wolf? So he takes this rooster. Everyone
is quite impressed, of course, uh, this headless chicken, and
words spread around about what was going on there, and
that eventually attracts the attention, of course to a side
(06:22):
show promoter who said, this chicken is dynamite. I don't
think you know what you have on your hands here.
Yeah you you rube, you hay seed. Yeah, I mean,
let's go into business together, is what he said. Totally
So um. This guy, his name was Hope Wade. I
kept waiting for him to turn into like a an underhanded,
devious kind of guy because he was the nineteen forties
(06:45):
side show promoter. He seemed to have been fine past
all the great tests, exploiting all the right to humans
and animals. He he was just in it for the
love of the game from what I could talk. So
he gets together, Hope Wade, the circus uh sideshow promoter
gets together with Lloyd and Clara and they start touring
the country with Mike the chicken. But first, I don't
(07:09):
understand why they did this, Maybe just to make the
whole thing even more bona fide. I'm not sure. They
went to Salt Lake City, and we should note that
Hope Wade traveled from Salt Salt Lake City to through Wada.
I think that's where we're gonna go with okay Um,
which was like three miles in the forties, the nine
(07:29):
that's not an easy distance to travel back then. And
because he heard about a headless chicken. But think about
like what he was putting on the line with that.
Let's say it took him four days to get there.
He could have been doing any number of things those
four days. The chicken could have died while he was
on the way there, and it didn't. And he made
(07:50):
it there, and he became a business partner with the Olsen's.
He had a hunch and he went with his gut
and it paid off. So the first thing he did, sorry,
was to take them back to sol City and introduced
him to some scientists there. That's right. So the scientists
did a lot of tests. Um they apparently we don't
know this for sure. I tried to do this surgically
to some other chickens just to see if it worked,
(08:12):
I guess, and Mike was like, stop, stop, what are
you doing. Life Magazine showed up and ran a story
in nine called Beheaded Chicken Lives normally after freak decapitation
by acts. That wasn't freak decapitation. It was very purposeful. Yeah,
but I think they were saying, like it was freaking
(08:33):
that he survived having his head chopped off. Maybe it's
just said freaky decapitation. But that's when Mike got he huge,
that's right, of course, Life Magazine is huge. Yeah, it
was huge. I think Time eventually did one on him,
and like it's really hard to overstate how big of
a deal. Mike the Headless Wonder Chicken, I think is
what they ultimately finally dubbed him. Became in the United
(08:55):
States like he was. People would come from far and
wide you go see him whenever he came to own.
I mean, once it hit the internet, it was like wildfire.
Well that's what Life Magazine was basically back then. Yeah,
that's true. So they all went to California in Arizona
then Hope, you know, they had to go back to
the farm at some point. Lloyd and Clara did so
(09:16):
hope towards the Southeast, which I bet it was just
like Gangbusters in the Southeast. You know, I looked up
Um when he came to Atlantic because surely he came
to Atlanta, and I couldn't find anything about it. Oh
that's because he went to Terminus, right, it was pre Atlanta. Uh.
They started getting letters, they started getting fan mail and
(09:38):
hate mail. Yeah that some people compared them to Nazis,
which I don't get that at all. I think experimentation maybe, okay,
kind of mangola esque, Mangela esque, I can bind ish
and asked together. That's a nice trend. Completely messed it up.
There's another way to put it. I think we should
(10:00):
start using that from now on. Yeah, why not? Okay,
I like it alright. Uh. They got a letter from
Alaska saying, um, can you swap out Mike's drumstick and
put in a wooden leg and just keep this party
going only in Alaska. Very funny people there, Um, and
they were so they became so well known, especially around Fruita.
(10:22):
I hope that's it, um, because if so were the
only outsiders that ever pronouncing correct, You're welcome, UM, thank
you no, not um so fruita. They became so well
known there that people would write letters to the owners
of the headless Chicken, and that was it on the
outside of the envelope and it would show up at
(10:45):
the Olsen's door in their mailbox. Yeah, the good old days.
So everything's going quite swimmingly for him. They made a
lot of money off of Mike. He actually lived for
eighteen months without a head. Yeah, and like there's pictures
of him standing there, standing up without a head and
his little heads down by his feet. Yeah, you can
(11:06):
see the stuff. Yeah, it's on the internet. Go check
it out. It's on the Current Life magazine, the internet,
the Worldwide Life. Yeah. I did some uh you know,
of course, the calculation, the inflation calculation. They were pulling
in in modern day money about sixty four thousand dollars
a month back then it was. And they said you
(11:27):
that Mike was valued and modern money at a hundred
and forty two dollars or tin tin grand back then.
So they upgraded their farm equipment. Yeah, they bought a
new pickup truck. That thing is sweet. Did you look
up forty six Chevy pick up? No, I'm pretty sure
I know what it looks like, man, they're nice. Um,
And yeah, they made a lot. They went from like
(11:49):
being poor Colorado farmers too, pretty well off Colorado farmers.
They've been using like a mule in a wagon before
to go to town. Now they were driving in their
brand new Chevy pickup truck. So that like it was
really good for them that Mike managed to live after
they cut his head off. Um, but while he was alive,
(12:11):
they managed to study him and figure out exactly what happened. Yeah,
so it's to be fair, it's a little more accurate
to say Mike the faceless chicken, although when you look
at a picture, it looks like the head is completely gone.
But what happened was he cut off the he he accident.
You know this is all by accident. Of course. Remember
(12:33):
he's trying to preserve as much of the neck as possible. Yeah,
which he did because he left the back of the
head on there. And apparently these chickens, most of the
brain function in the brain itself is a little further back,
tucked back into the neck. Yeah, so he the brain lived.
That's why this chicken was able to walk around and
be a chicken. And he definitely took a slice off
(12:54):
of the brain. But I think this one guy in
this one BBC article by Crystal old Walker, um the
chicken that lived for eighteen months without a head, there's
really no wrong headline you can have when you're writing
about Mike the headless chicken. Um, he's he's. He basically says,
probably about eight of the brain was left over. You know,
everything they controlled, breathing, heartbeat, um, digestion, all that stuff. Um,
(13:19):
and so all they were left with was figuring out
how to keep Mike alive. He still needed food, even
though he didn't have a head or a face or anymore.
He still needed food. So the Olstan's would actually feed
him with an eye dropper of milk and water combination.
They would give him little grounds of corn right into
the esophagus, right yep, right into the esophagus um. When
(13:41):
he got flammy, or if a little bit of corn
got backed up or stuck in there, they would use
a syringe to pull it out. And Mike lived this
way for eight teen months. He actually went from two
and a half pounds to eight pounds without a head.
Mike thrived. The big question was, like, which I had
the whole time was why didn't this thing just bleed out,
because you know, it had his head cut off, and
(14:03):
the science thinks, you know, it just a quick blood
clot just kind of took care of it. Yeah, science
went God, Yeah, sure, So there's a kind of a
sad ending. Of course, Mike is eventually gonna die. You
would hope that Mike just died of old age. But
when they were in Arizona, they woke up to the
(14:25):
sound of chicken choking and Clara said, even Jerry is
that you and her husband was like, it's not me
this time, it's it's Mike. And sadly Mike was had
expired because they left the syringe behind that would clear
(14:48):
that esophagus. Yeah, the last side fatal, fatal mistake it was,
which is really sad for Mike. He choked to death
on a piece of corn. God, but they also watched
the their main source of incredible income, just choked to
death on a piece of corn because they left the
(15:09):
syringe back at the fairground. A crazy story. So so
in this BBC article, Troy Waters, who was the great
grandson of Lloyd and Clara Olsen Uh he said that
his great grandfather told him this whole story, and for years,
basically for decades, would never fess up to Mike dying
on him. He said, he sold him off to a
(15:30):
sideshow promoter, and he finally fessed up before his death
that Mike had choked on a piece of corn and
that that was that. What an amazing story, an amazing
animal story. All right, Well, we're gonna take a break
and come back with another right after this. Okay, we're back, everybody,
(16:14):
Amazing Animal Story number two. And this, uh, this one
is the one that is pretty horrifying in some ways
but also cute but also horrifying. I honestly don't know.
It's horrifying. All right, well, i'll point it out when
we get to it. Oh, I know it's This is
the story of Voytech the Bear. And I believe you've
(16:35):
got a lot of this stuff from Time magazine and
Atlas Obscura and what else another Atlas Obscura. Okay, Wow,
they doubled up on this one. They did for good reason,
because it's a pretty amazing story. And there's two different
memorials you can visit. That's true. So Voytech the Bear.
(16:55):
Voytech is a Polish name which is odd for a
serial brown bear found motherlessen Iran, Persia at the time,
I don't think it was Iran then, yeah yeah, um yeah,
World Wars you changed a lot of geography and boundaries
and country names while you're telling me. So, um a
(17:18):
Polish name for Syrian brown bear is a little odd
until you know the background. But behind this whole thing.
So before we get to the bear, we have to
talk a little bit about why there were Polish soldiers
in Persia in the nineteen forties. Well, because of the war, Okay,
So now we talk about the brown Bear. Yes, specifically
(17:41):
the twenty second Transport Company Artillery Division in the Polish
Second Core. UH. They were fighting UH in World War
two and an a on April eighth, they find this
little cub in the mountains of Iran. Well, there's a
boy who had found it, and they traded him for it.
What they trade They traded some coins, some chocolate, a
(18:02):
Swiss army knife, and a can of beef. They not bad, yeah,
you know, I mean it depends on how the beef
is prepared. You know. I bet it was some kind
of a jerky Okay, you know that travels well. So,
by the way, I finally gotten over my beef jerky
uh reticence, because I don't know. Years ago, when I
(18:24):
lived in Los Angeles, I ate moldy beef jerky one
night when I was up late. Well I didn't mean to,
it was I came home from the bar afterwards and
I was just eating in the dark in front of
the TV, and I was like, this tastes funny. And
I turned on the light and it was just covered
in blue mold and I vomited. And I literally hadn't
haven't had beef jerky in like fifteen years. But I'm
(18:45):
back on it. Okay. It's good stuff and a good snack.
As it turns out, it is. I have some right
here if you want it. No, I'm good. I know
you're a jerky enthusiast. So April eight, they find this
bear traded with the boy and they were Polish prisoners
of war who were being moved from Siberia from a
prison there or a gulag to Egypt, and they got
(19:08):
this bear and basically we're like, this is our little
baby now. Yeah, And just one more thing. So this um,
this army, this Polish division of soldiers had been captured
by the Soviets and held as prisoners of war. But
after Germany turned on the Soviet Union the Um the
Soviets sided with the Allies, and part of that siding
(19:29):
was to release these Polish soldiers to form a military
unit known as Andrew's Army. Look at you, okay, all right?
And then now they have a brown bear in their position,
a little bear cub, that's right. And as you could imagine,
these soldiers, who had been away from their families and
their own children, adopted this little baby bear as their own.
And here's the part that's terrible. As he did certain
(19:52):
tricks like, uh, if they offered him a cigarette, he
would take a puff on it and then eat it. Right,
that's awful, Yeah, eat a lit cigarette. You should not
do that to an animal. Or let it drink beer
from a bottle. Well, that's pretty hilarious actually, so a
bear drinking a beer from a bottle. And this is
what one of the people who were there said, Um
(20:12):
that votech would drink the beer from the bottle and
it was empty. He would hold the bottle up and
look into the opening to see where the beer went.
Because he wanted more hysterical. I think it's hilarious. Other
things that would happen there is votech would drink a
lot of water because you were in in Egypt, of
(20:33):
course it was very hot. Um. He would chase after
these oranges that they used for grenade practice. He would
break into the shower so he could drink that water,
which was a problem because they were rationing water. Yeah,
because they were in Egypt. It's a little scarce outside
of the Nile, that's right. So um, he just basically became, uh,
(20:53):
the mascot for this artillery unit, like just through and through.
They love this bear so much, and he loved them
right back. There was a uh, well just a real
mascot thing going on. Yeah. And even when it came
to battle there there are rules, um that say you
can't have a bear in war. It's pretty much you
(21:16):
can't have any pets unstated. And so they said, oh, yeah,
well we're gonna enlist this bear and give him an
official number and rank private voytech. I guess and voytech,
by the way, means joyful warrior. I don't think we
said that. And so this was now an official uh
soldier of sorts that allowed them to skirt the rules
(21:37):
of war. Yeah, he was a private in the Second Core.
I mean like that's and then okay, well then you
can come along. Yes see, I thought this was pretty
terrible too, bringing a bear along to the front lines.
Well so, most of the time when he was in
the front lines, um or anywhere with them, he his
main role, aside from mascotting, was they trained him just
(21:59):
kind of it in the cab of a truck, um
so to guard it, to protect it, keep anyone from stealing.
Works pretty well, I would get um. Well. During this
Battle of Monte Casino um in Italy, uh, he was
there on the front lines guarding trucks and supposedly started
(22:20):
carrying crates in artillery during this battle. There's no photo documentation,
if there's plenty of pictures of Voytech and the Polish
Second Core hanging out doing their thing, wrestling, having fun.
Um there's no pictures from this battle, but there are
witnesses who say, yeah, this this six hundred pound six
(22:41):
ft tall brown bear was walking around carrying a creative
artillery shells. Where they spent, where they knew, where they
unused who knows, but he was definitely doing that. That's
the story about Voytech. Yeah, I say, get that bear
away from the field of battle. Sure, that's just my opinion,
but I'm sure everyone loved it. Yeah. Eventually, though, sadly,
(23:04):
the war would end and everyone was like, well, what
are we gonna do with this bear. It's like when
you get a bear with a significant other and you
break up, or you know, like who's going to take
the bear? You fight over the bear. Everyone wanted the bear.
Of course, Voytech was beloved, and they said, well, here's
what we don't want to do is send him back
to Poland because you know, the Soviets love their bear
(23:27):
Insignia's and they'll just scoop him up as a symbol
for communism. Yeah, and after the Alta Conference, Poland went
behind the Iron Curtain. That was that. And so these
Polish fighters who have been fighting for Polish freedom got
the exact opposite at the end of World War Two
and they're like, you're not taking our bear. You're certainly
not gonna make him a symbol of communism like you
(23:49):
were saying. Yeah, And they were fighting with the Allies
and the Brits by this point, so they ended up.
I think Voytech ended up in Scotland because of that. Yeah,
with this um the twenty second Artillery Regiment. They ended
up in Scotland around Edinburgh. Um and so he was
with them when the war ended and their status was
kind of up in the air too. They all decided
(24:09):
to live in exile, and um Voytech lived with them,
and he eventually went to the Edinburgh Zoo and became
one of the most popular attractions at the zoo for years. Yeah,
and was just sort of like in the army, was
a part of the community. Apparently. They would take him
around to kids parties, he would go to concerts and
dances and you know, just a beloved bear. He knew
(24:32):
how to yell free bird at inappropriate times. Uh an
amazing there at the age of twenty two. Sadly, Voidtech
would die in nineteen sixty three. I don't know about
how old bears are, but that seems like a decent
life for a bear. How old twenty two? Sure, but
they think, uh, partially why this bear died was because
(24:55):
of damage to his esophagus from that cute little cigarette
tra that they would play. Isn't that awful? Yes? It is.
So There's a woman named um Or. Her last name
is or Eileen or she wrote Voytech, the bear Polish
war hero. There's a colon in there. You can figure
out where it goes um And she said that she
(25:19):
lives in this farm that Voytech lived in in Scotland
right before he was moved to the zoo, and his
claw marks are still on some of those trees, which
that would be quite a sight to see. Amazing yep,
I thought, so too, Is that how you got on Voytech?
That sure is Chuck. All right, we're gonna take our
final break and come back with the tail of another
(25:39):
animal adopted by the military right after this. Okay, so
(26:12):
final amazing animal story. Yet another animal adopted by a
military unit. This was not a bear in Poland, though,
this was a very cute dog. St. Bernard uh Bumps
a B A M. S. E. That was adopted by
the Royal Norwegian Navy during World War Two. That's right,
(26:32):
and he kind of got drafted along with his owner,
who's a guy named Lieutenant Erling half though great name
and Erling hafto Um was a harbor master in a
town called Honingsbag on the Margaroya Island. You're really going
for it, huh. I don't think I got that last
(26:52):
one right uh in Norway, right on the north coast
of Norway. Um. And so, uh, bumps Of would just
kind of like hang out with with Lieutenant Haft. He
was like the family dog. And very early on UM
he became beloved at least with the Haft family. When
little Victus half to the three year old daughter fell
(27:13):
ill and apparently bumps Of would not leave her side
for like this whole twelve days when she was at
death Store until she recovered. Yeah. So they thought this
dog is good luck. Uh it. I don't know if
they thought it healed her daughter, probably not her their daughter,
but but they thought it was certainly a good omen
and at the very least an exceedingly loyal dog. Yeah.
(27:35):
And this was in thirty eight and thirty nine World
War two, UM breaks out and so Hafto was called
active duty. Uh. And this is you know something if
you've seen the movie Done Kirk Um. They would take
you know, civilian ships and basically make them into warships,
not necessarily like battleships, but bring them into active duty
(27:56):
as well. So they gave him a whaling ship called
the Rod with two d's and said you are now
a coastal patrol boat and you are a patrol boat captain, right. So, Um,
he was part of the Norwegian Army and as a
ship's dog, which Bumps so was. He was the ship's
dog already. Um. When he was entered into the log
(28:18):
he became part of the Norwegian Royal Navy himself. So
he was Bumps a sea dog of the Royal nor
Norwegian Navy. Right, that's right. Where did you find this stuff?
By the way? Oh this uh, this came from Famous
Dogs in History. I loved it. Uh, that's probably one
of your favorite websites. And then Kit and Morgan Benson
(28:39):
had something on Fine the Grave, and then there's some
other ones I've seen. Um. So BUMPSA and Lieutenant have
To are just kind of hanging out doing their thing
coastal patrolling on the Thorod. And it's not just the
two of them, but Lieutenant have To was in charge
of the Thorod and there's this whole crew and they're
starting to love Bumps of like more and more and more.
Of course. Um. Eventually the Nazis invade Norway que the booing,
(29:04):
and the Norwegian King says, everybody, let's get out of here,
we're gonna go form a government in exile in the
UK Scotland, specifically Scotland. Um, everybody regrouped there and so
the Thorod and Captain Lieutenant Half too, we're put in
charge of mind sweeping around Dundee, Scotland. That was their
thing now keeping the UK safe. Yeah, And just like
(29:27):
it's very similar to the to the votech story in
a lot of ways. They both ended up in Scotland.
They were like an hour and a half car drive
apart from one another at the same time. That's crazy,
isn't it. So just like with the votech story, Bombsa
becomes beloved by the town, Uh, goes on the pub.
Crawls would sit at the bar. Apparently there was one
story where there was a cat sitting up on the
(29:48):
seat that was usually occupied by the dog, and of
course Bumpsa comes in. It's like, get out of here, cat,
it's my seat. And not only did he go to
the bar just to hang out, he went to the
bar to drink year with his um fellow sailors. Again,
drink beer out of a bowl. It's not good for
a dog, but kind of hilarious still. But he was
(30:09):
also kind of the d D because he was well
known for going to the bars and the pubs to
get his sailors back to the ship before curfew so
they wouldn't get in trouble. That's right. He learned how
to open doors. Uh. He wore a little hat just
very cute. You can see picture of this little sailor's cap.
So once he learned to open doors, he could visit
(30:29):
like all the businesses all around the harbor. People just
like come on in. After he learned to open doors,
he learned to ride the bus. Yeah, they gave him
a bus pass that he wore around his neck. Yes,
that is super cute. But not only that, Chuck Wick
makes it even cuter is bumps Of would go to
the bus stop and sit there and wait, and the
bus riders would stop and let him on, and he
would climb up to the top deck and sit there
(30:50):
and like look out and be like, hey, I'm bumps Of,
so great good to meet you. So I think you
said that he was. He ended up being good luck
still to the sold ors he was. There were more
than one instance where Bumps I would either break up
a fight or foil some sort of crime. There was
one soldier who was getting mugged, and Bumps came up
(31:11):
and attacked the mugger. One guy went overboard I think
he was kind of drunk at the end of the
night and fell in the water, and BUMPSA jumped in
and you know, barked and barked and then kept this
guy afloat until they could rescue him. Yeah. Like saved
at least two men's life. Pretty pretty great. Um. He
also was extraordinarily brave UM when when the Thorod would
(31:34):
Um would be out patrolling and take take fire from
German planes. He would sit next to the tail gunner
I guess, in the tail of the boat that's what
they call it, Um, and with a little helmet, a
little steel helmet on his head and just sit there
and probably point with his paw like there's one over there.
I can't imagine the sound. I guess it just didn't
(31:56):
didn't bother him, and he would not leave the gunners
side until the attack had been all the Nazis were dead,
so Um he'd swim out to the down planes and
chew the throats out of the rounded. He was a
full service sea dog. So at one point, Uh, this
(32:16):
dog was transferred. I'm sorry, the uh, the owner was
transferred to another ship and everybody was like no, no, no,
you're not taking Bumps with you. Yeah, he was going
to and they're like no, like this dog stay in
the here. He's like, I'm the captain, and the dad
of the dog said nope, he belongs to this ship.
Yeah and that town, and that's what happened. They left
(32:37):
him there, which was the right and it was temporary,
of course, it's not like he was It was just
for a few months. So they were eventually reunited. So
Bumps was like this beloved sea dog, not just in
this town of Dundee um, I think it was actually Montrose, Scotland, um,
but all over the UK, and it basically became like
(32:58):
the mascot of the entire Norwegian Royal Navy. He was
beloved is a really good way to put it. He
was known as a peacemaker, a lifesaver, very brave, very
sweet um. And so when he died it was a big,
big deal. He was only something like, I think, um,
seven seven years old. Yeah, you know these St Bernard's
(33:20):
as bigger dogs have a little shorter lifespan, I think, um,
but a pretty good seven years and the whole town
came out in a big way. Yeah. They canceled school
so the school children could attend his funeral. They gave
him um a funeral with full military honors. His casket
was draped in the Norwegian flag, like it was a
(33:41):
big deal. Soldiers came from all over the place. The
town just basically stopped that day to attend bumps his funeral.
That's right. Over a thousand sailors and villagers attended this funeral.
Pretty great, and I think there there's there. Does this
one have two statues or was that votech Voytech had
two statues, one in crack Out and one in Edinburgh,
(34:05):
and then Bumpsa has one in I believe in Dundee, Scotland,
and then the other one is going to be in Norway.
I don't know if they've raised it yet. And then
in two thousand six to the story gets even better
because Bumpsa was awarded posthumously, of course, the People's Dispensary
for Sick Animals Gold Medal, uh as the animals version
(34:27):
of the George's Cross or the George Cross right, and
who accepted it on his behalf uh vigdis the little
girl who was on death's door until she got those
sweet sweet st Bernard legs. Pretty amazing, amazing. Well that's
it for amazing animals, everybody. If you want to know
more about amazing animals, just go start reading about them.
(34:48):
It will turn your day around. Or just walk outside
and look around. Yeah, go kiss your closest animal. How
about that? Uh? And since I said that, it's time
for a listener mail, kudos guys on the MG three
seventy podcast we got that must have been a good one.
We got a lot of good response from that one,
as well as other people that were like, aviation is
(35:10):
tough and you guys did an okay job. I didn't
see any of those. Yeah, there were a couple of
those technical details, but I think we told a good
story in the end. I live in Kuala Lampur and
have even flown on MH three seventy for this incident.
You covered this one really well and handled the cultural
issues well. To really appreciate that you reached conclusion and
(35:30):
a logical, well reasoned and unbiased manner. This includes your
reference to other UH suicide flights like the Silk Care
flight you are spot on Malaysia is not interested in
the truth in this case and are happy to see
this as an act of God. Hence the prayer they
show on every single flight since yes, they put a
prayer on the screen before every takeoff, asking God to
(35:53):
bless the flight. As Westerners, we will never understand this
fatalistic approach, as we can see a real cause for
this terrible event that they prefer to pass off as
God's will. This riff between how we think about it
and how they think about it is real. I don't
mean to be bigoted or anything, but I have lived
in this culture for forty years now and understand that
people do think differently. My wonderful wife that is from here,
(36:16):
even agrees with this assessment. So well done, guys. This
one of your best podcasts, well researched and well presented,
calling it as it is, sadly, cheers Pete. Thanks Pete,
that was nice of him. Yeah, um, that's great. I
don't have anything to add great. Uh. If you want
to get in touch with this like Pete did, Thanks again, Pete.
(36:38):
You can go to stuff you should know dot com
and look for our social links there, and you can
also send us an email too. Stuff Podcast at iHeart
radio dot com. Stuff you Should Know is a production
of iHeart Radios. How stuff Works for more podcasts for
my heart radio because at the iHeart Radio app, Apple
podcasts are wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Stuff You should know, a production of five
Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Josh Clark, There's Charles w. Chub Bryan over there,
there's Jerry and uh. The stuff's right. Amazing animal that's right.
(00:25):
That well partially delight you, and if you're an animal
over should partially horrify you at times. If you don't
like animals, and you're probably gonna listen, I don't know,
you could be like, yeah, you probably wouldn't listen Amazing
Animal stories skip, but who would do that? One star? Yeah,
(00:52):
So we're talking animals today, and like we said, not
just animals, amazing animals because animals are great to talk about.
We've talked about um octopie and duck billed platypie and elephant.
I that we did the platypus I believe we have okay,
almost positive, If not, it's do this is so the
(01:14):
animals are funny to talk about. It's even more fun
to talk about animals that are accomplished. That's right. Okay.
You know I was at the playground the other day
and my daughter was playing with another little girl, which
is kind of one of the fun things about kids.
They just immediately bond with another kid and the girl
turned out to be a bar cup. I wish no.
(01:35):
This girl smashed a ladybug and said yeah, and the
parents went around. I was there and I was horrified,
and my daughter said, that wasn't nice. You shouldn't kill animals.
Good for you. And then this girl stomped an anthill
girl's kind of issues. Yeah, and I and you know what,
she found another ladybug and I said, don't touch that ladybug.
(01:58):
She said why not? I said, because you the last one? Yeah,
And I like felt fine, like admonishing this child that
was not mine. Did you wait until she turned around
and clapped by her ear to really startled her or
drive it home? No, but she did trip later on,
and under my breath I went, Karma, really, Yeah, she
was fine, And then above your breath you went, that's
right above my breath. Yeah. By the way, With Mike
(02:22):
the headless Chicken, which we're gonna start out with, I
couldn't remember how this existed in the annals of stuff.
You should know, because I knew it did, and I
thought it might have been one of our dumb videos.
But it turns out it was one of our great videos.
Which one it was? You did it? Dumb? Don't be
dumb on this. But surely we've talked about Mike before.
I thought we might have, but don't be dumb. Was
(02:42):
only it came up and it was great, weird. Oh,
thank you very much. We've done some cool videos together. Though.
Remember this day in history where like we yeered off
into like conjuring Satan for a little while, and like
we ended up in a different dimension. And I thought
those were great. So silly anyway, Um, okay, So, like
you said, we're talking about Mike the Headless Chicken. First,
(03:05):
that's right, which September n If you were in Colorado
and you happen to live near the Olsens, Lloyd and
Clara and Freud to Colorado, Yeah, Fruda, do you know
where that is? It's by Grand Junction, which I think
is you know where that is? I feel like I've
(03:25):
been West Colorado, like on the way to like all
those amazing national parks. Colorado is very varied. You think
of Colorado is just being this amazing mountain estate, which
it is in parts, but they're also like planes and
all sorts of stuff. That's where there's an ocean right
in the middle of it. Right, that's where Canyon National
(03:47):
Park or Canyon Land and Candy Land. That's where the
guy cut off his own arm in a d twenty
seven hours. James Franco. Sure. Yeah, So the Olsens were
farmers and they were killing birds. Lloyd would cut the
heads off of these chickens and his wife would clean
them up, because, after all, it was that's kind of
(04:07):
how the division of labor went back then. And he
would go in and sell these chickens at the market,
and they he went to gather up all the chickens,
and he got to one with no head that was
still alive, and he went, what into our nation. That's right,
that's a direct you should be dead. I saw that
for this one in particular, he he aimed to preserve
(04:31):
the neck as much as possible, so he just took
off the head. Right. He did a good job, I guess,
because I think his mother in law was coming over
for dinner and she liked fried chicken necks, so he
was trying to give her a fried chicken neck, just
taking the head off. The thing is this one was
still alive, and that's still live in the way that
a chicken will run around with its head cut off,
(04:53):
like everybody knows. Yeah, he was just being a chicken. Yeah,
so he did that. He ran around like a chicken
with his head cut off. But then he's stopped and
he started like pecking at the ground with his stump.
He started preening himself, basically acting like he still had
a head and like he wasn't planning on dying anytime soon.
That's right. So Lloyd said, let me put you in
(05:14):
this about this apple box overnight and just I assume
we'll get up in the morning and you'll be dead.
Then God will take his vengeance over the night I
want any more like you consider it a coffin, basically, right,
And he woke up in the morning and this chicken
was still alive, a rooster technically, So he said, what's
(05:38):
for breakfast? So he took this thing to that meat
market just to show everyone, like, you gotta see, this
is what anyone would have done, I think. And then
the word starts to spread. Everyone was amazed at this
headless chicken. Word starts to spread around fruit to Why
do I have a bad feeling we're pronouncing that wrong?
Is there any other way. You could pronounce that fru wide. Yeah,
(06:01):
that could be. I mean in Georgia they called Cairo
ki row, that's true, and Voyanna for Vienna. That's right. So, uh,
did you just wolf? So he takes this rooster. Everyone
is quite impressed, of course, uh, this headless chicken, and
words spread around about what was going on there, and
that eventually attracts the attention, of course to a side
(06:22):
show promoter who said, this chicken is dynamite. I don't
think you know what you have on your hands here.
Yeah you you rube, you hay seed. Yeah, I mean,
let's go into business together, is what he said. Totally
So um. This guy, his name was Hope Wade. I
kept waiting for him to turn into like a an underhanded,
devious kind of guy because he was the nineteen forties
(06:45):
side show promoter. He seemed to have been fine past
all the great tests, exploiting all the right to humans
and animals. He he was just in it for the
love of the game from what I could talk. So
he gets together, Hope Wade, the circus uh sideshow promoter
gets together with Lloyd and Clara and they start touring
the country with Mike the chicken. But first, I don't
(07:09):
understand why they did this, Maybe just to make the
whole thing even more bona fide. I'm not sure. They
went to Salt Lake City, and we should note that
Hope Wade traveled from Salt Salt Lake City to through Wada.
I think that's where we're gonna go with okay Um,
which was like three miles in the forties, the nine
(07:29):
that's not an easy distance to travel back then. And
because he heard about a headless chicken. But think about
like what he was putting on the line with that.
Let's say it took him four days to get there.
He could have been doing any number of things those
four days. The chicken could have died while he was
on the way there, and it didn't. And he made
(07:50):
it there, and he became a business partner with the Olsen's.
He had a hunch and he went with his gut
and it paid off. So the first thing he did, sorry,
was to take them back to sol City and introduced
him to some scientists there. That's right. So the scientists
did a lot of tests. Um they apparently we don't
know this for sure. I tried to do this surgically
to some other chickens just to see if it worked,
(08:12):
I guess, and Mike was like, stop, stop, what are
you doing. Life Magazine showed up and ran a story
in nine called Beheaded Chicken Lives normally after freak decapitation
by acts. That wasn't freak decapitation. It was very purposeful. Yeah,
but I think they were saying, like it was freaking
(08:33):
that he survived having his head chopped off. Maybe it's
just said freaky decapitation. But that's when Mike got he huge,
that's right, of course, Life Magazine is huge. Yeah, it
was huge. I think Time eventually did one on him,
and like it's really hard to overstate how big of
a deal. Mike the Headless Wonder Chicken, I think is
what they ultimately finally dubbed him. Became in the United
(08:55):
States like he was. People would come from far and
wide you go see him whenever he came to own.
I mean, once it hit the internet, it was like wildfire.
Well that's what Life Magazine was basically back then. Yeah,
that's true. So they all went to California in Arizona
then Hope, you know, they had to go back to
the farm at some point. Lloyd and Clara did so
(09:16):
hope towards the Southeast, which I bet it was just
like Gangbusters in the Southeast. You know, I looked up
Um when he came to Atlantic because surely he came
to Atlanta, and I couldn't find anything about it. Oh
that's because he went to Terminus, right, it was pre Atlanta. Uh.
They started getting letters, they started getting fan mail and
(09:38):
hate mail. Yeah that some people compared them to Nazis,
which I don't get that at all. I think experimentation maybe, okay,
kind of mangola esque, Mangela esque, I can bind ish
and asked together. That's a nice trend. Completely messed it up.
There's another way to put it. I think we should
(10:00):
start using that from now on. Yeah, why not? Okay,
I like it alright. Uh. They got a letter from
Alaska saying, um, can you swap out Mike's drumstick and
put in a wooden leg and just keep this party
going only in Alaska. Very funny people there, Um, and
they were so they became so well known, especially around Fruita.
(10:22):
I hope that's it, um, because if so were the
only outsiders that ever pronouncing correct, You're welcome, UM, thank
you no, not um so fruita. They became so well
known there that people would write letters to the owners
of the headless Chicken, and that was it on the
outside of the envelope and it would show up at
(10:45):
the Olsen's door in their mailbox. Yeah, the good old days.
So everything's going quite swimmingly for him. They made a
lot of money off of Mike. He actually lived for
eighteen months without a head. Yeah, and like there's pictures
of him standing there, standing up without a head and
his little heads down by his feet. Yeah, you can
(11:06):
see the stuff. Yeah, it's on the internet. Go check
it out. It's on the Current Life magazine, the internet,
the Worldwide Life. Yeah. I did some uh you know,
of course, the calculation, the inflation calculation. They were pulling
in in modern day money about sixty four thousand dollars
a month back then it was. And they said you
(11:27):
that Mike was valued and modern money at a hundred
and forty two dollars or tin tin grand back then.
So they upgraded their farm equipment. Yeah, they bought a
new pickup truck. That thing is sweet. Did you look
up forty six Chevy pick up? No, I'm pretty sure
I know what it looks like, man, they're nice. Um,
And yeah, they made a lot. They went from like
(11:49):
being poor Colorado farmers too, pretty well off Colorado farmers.
They've been using like a mule in a wagon before
to go to town. Now they were driving in their
brand new Chevy pickup truck. So that like it was
really good for them that Mike managed to live after
they cut his head off. Um, but while he was alive,
(12:11):
they managed to study him and figure out exactly what happened. Yeah,
so it's to be fair, it's a little more accurate
to say Mike the faceless chicken, although when you look
at a picture, it looks like the head is completely gone.
But what happened was he cut off the he he accident.
You know this is all by accident. Of course. Remember
(12:33):
he's trying to preserve as much of the neck as possible. Yeah,
which he did because he left the back of the
head on there. And apparently these chickens, most of the
brain function in the brain itself is a little further back,
tucked back into the neck. Yeah, so he the brain lived.
That's why this chicken was able to walk around and
be a chicken. And he definitely took a slice off
(12:54):
of the brain. But I think this one guy in
this one BBC article by Crystal old Walker, um the
chicken that lived for eighteen months without a head, there's
really no wrong headline you can have when you're writing
about Mike the headless chicken. Um, he's he's. He basically says,
probably about eight of the brain was left over. You know,
everything they controlled, breathing, heartbeat, um, digestion, all that stuff. Um,
(13:19):
and so all they were left with was figuring out
how to keep Mike alive. He still needed food, even
though he didn't have a head or a face or anymore.
He still needed food. So the Olstan's would actually feed
him with an eye dropper of milk and water combination.
They would give him little grounds of corn right into
the esophagus, right yep, right into the esophagus um. When
(13:41):
he got flammy, or if a little bit of corn
got backed up or stuck in there, they would use
a syringe to pull it out. And Mike lived this
way for eight teen months. He actually went from two
and a half pounds to eight pounds without a head.
Mike thrived. The big question was, like, which I had
the whole time was why didn't this thing just bleed out,
because you know, it had his head cut off, and
(14:03):
the science thinks, you know, it just a quick blood
clot just kind of took care of it. Yeah, science
went God, Yeah, sure, So there's a kind of a
sad ending. Of course, Mike is eventually gonna die. You
would hope that Mike just died of old age. But
when they were in Arizona, they woke up to the
(14:25):
sound of chicken choking and Clara said, even Jerry is
that you and her husband was like, it's not me
this time, it's it's Mike. And sadly Mike was had
expired because they left the syringe behind that would clear
(14:48):
that esophagus. Yeah, the last side fatal, fatal mistake it was,
which is really sad for Mike. He choked to death
on a piece of corn. God, but they also watched
the their main source of incredible income, just choked to
death on a piece of corn because they left the
(15:09):
syringe back at the fairground. A crazy story. So so
in this BBC article, Troy Waters, who was the great
grandson of Lloyd and Clara Olsen Uh he said that
his great grandfather told him this whole story, and for years,
basically for decades, would never fess up to Mike dying
on him. He said, he sold him off to a
(15:30):
sideshow promoter, and he finally fessed up before his death
that Mike had choked on a piece of corn and
that that was that. What an amazing story, an amazing
animal story. All right, Well, we're gonna take a break
and come back with another right after this. Okay, we're back, everybody,
(16:14):
Amazing Animal Story number two. And this, uh, this one
is the one that is pretty horrifying in some ways
but also cute but also horrifying. I honestly don't know.
It's horrifying. All right, well, i'll point it out when
we get to it. Oh, I know it's This is
the story of Voytech the Bear. And I believe you've
(16:35):
got a lot of this stuff from Time magazine and
Atlas Obscura and what else another Atlas Obscura. Okay, Wow,
they doubled up on this one. They did for good reason,
because it's a pretty amazing story. And there's two different
memorials you can visit. That's true. So Voytech the Bear.
(16:55):
Voytech is a Polish name which is odd for a
serial brown bear found motherlessen Iran, Persia at the time,
I don't think it was Iran then, yeah yeah, um yeah,
World Wars you changed a lot of geography and boundaries
and country names while you're telling me. So, um a
(17:18):
Polish name for Syrian brown bear is a little odd
until you know the background. But behind this whole thing.
So before we get to the bear, we have to
talk a little bit about why there were Polish soldiers
in Persia in the nineteen forties. Well, because of the war, Okay,
So now we talk about the brown Bear. Yes, specifically
(17:41):
the twenty second Transport Company Artillery Division in the Polish
Second Core. UH. They were fighting UH in World War
two and an a on April eighth, they find this
little cub in the mountains of Iran. Well, there's a
boy who had found it, and they traded him for it.
What they trade They traded some coins, some chocolate, a
(18:02):
Swiss army knife, and a can of beef. They not bad, yeah,
you know, I mean it depends on how the beef
is prepared. You know. I bet it was some kind
of a jerky Okay, you know that travels well. So,
by the way, I finally gotten over my beef jerky
uh reticence, because I don't know. Years ago, when I
(18:24):
lived in Los Angeles, I ate moldy beef jerky one
night when I was up late. Well I didn't mean to,
it was I came home from the bar afterwards and
I was just eating in the dark in front of
the TV, and I was like, this tastes funny. And
I turned on the light and it was just covered
in blue mold and I vomited. And I literally hadn't
haven't had beef jerky in like fifteen years. But I'm
(18:45):
back on it. Okay. It's good stuff and a good snack.
As it turns out, it is. I have some right
here if you want it. No, I'm good. I know
you're a jerky enthusiast. So April eight, they find this
bear traded with the boy and they were Polish prisoners
of war who were being moved from Siberia from a
prison there or a gulag to Egypt, and they got
(19:08):
this bear and basically we're like, this is our little
baby now. Yeah, And just one more thing. So this um,
this army, this Polish division of soldiers had been captured
by the Soviets and held as prisoners of war. But
after Germany turned on the Soviet Union the Um the
Soviets sided with the Allies, and part of that siding
(19:29):
was to release these Polish soldiers to form a military
unit known as Andrew's Army. Look at you, okay, all right?
And then now they have a brown bear in their position,
a little bear cub, that's right. And as you could imagine,
these soldiers, who had been away from their families and
their own children, adopted this little baby bear as their own.
And here's the part that's terrible. As he did certain
(19:52):
tricks like, uh, if they offered him a cigarette, he
would take a puff on it and then eat it. Right,
that's awful, Yeah, eat a lit cigarette. You should not
do that to an animal. Or let it drink beer
from a bottle. Well, that's pretty hilarious actually, so a
bear drinking a beer from a bottle. And this is
what one of the people who were there said, Um
(20:12):
that votech would drink the beer from the bottle and
it was empty. He would hold the bottle up and
look into the opening to see where the beer went.
Because he wanted more hysterical. I think it's hilarious. Other
things that would happen there is votech would drink a
lot of water because you were in in Egypt, of
(20:33):
course it was very hot. Um. He would chase after
these oranges that they used for grenade practice. He would
break into the shower so he could drink that water,
which was a problem because they were rationing water. Yeah,
because they were in Egypt. It's a little scarce outside
of the Nile, that's right. So um, he just basically became, uh,
(20:53):
the mascot for this artillery unit, like just through and through.
They love this bear so much, and he loved them
right back. There was a uh, well just a real
mascot thing going on. Yeah. And even when it came
to battle there there are rules, um that say you
can't have a bear in war. It's pretty much you
(21:16):
can't have any pets unstated. And so they said, oh, yeah,
well we're gonna enlist this bear and give him an
official number and rank private voytech. I guess and voytech,
by the way, means joyful warrior. I don't think we
said that. And so this was now an official uh
soldier of sorts that allowed them to skirt the rules
(21:37):
of war. Yeah, he was a private in the Second Core.
I mean like that's and then okay, well then you
can come along. Yes see, I thought this was pretty
terrible too, bringing a bear along to the front lines.
Well so, most of the time when he was in
the front lines, um or anywhere with them, he his
main role, aside from mascotting, was they trained him just
(21:59):
kind of it in the cab of a truck, um
so to guard it, to protect it, keep anyone from stealing.
Works pretty well, I would get um. Well. During this
Battle of Monte Casino um in Italy, uh, he was
there on the front lines guarding trucks and supposedly started
(22:20):
carrying crates in artillery during this battle. There's no photo documentation,
if there's plenty of pictures of Voytech and the Polish
Second Core hanging out doing their thing, wrestling, having fun.
Um there's no pictures from this battle, but there are
witnesses who say, yeah, this this six hundred pound six
(22:41):
ft tall brown bear was walking around carrying a creative
artillery shells. Where they spent, where they knew, where they
unused who knows, but he was definitely doing that. That's
the story about Voytech. Yeah, I say, get that bear
away from the field of battle. Sure, that's just my opinion,
but I'm sure everyone loved it. Yeah. Eventually, though, sadly,
(23:04):
the war would end and everyone was like, well, what
are we gonna do with this bear. It's like when
you get a bear with a significant other and you
break up, or you know, like who's going to take
the bear? You fight over the bear. Everyone wanted the bear.
Of course, Voytech was beloved, and they said, well, here's
what we don't want to do is send him back
to Poland because you know, the Soviets love their bear
(23:27):
Insignia's and they'll just scoop him up as a symbol
for communism. Yeah, and after the Alta Conference, Poland went
behind the Iron Curtain. That was that. And so these
Polish fighters who have been fighting for Polish freedom got
the exact opposite at the end of World War Two
and they're like, you're not taking our bear. You're certainly
not gonna make him a symbol of communism like you
(23:49):
were saying. Yeah, And they were fighting with the Allies
and the Brits by this point, so they ended up.
I think Voytech ended up in Scotland because of that. Yeah,
with this um the twenty second Artillery Regiment. They ended
up in Scotland around Edinburgh. Um and so he was
with them when the war ended and their status was
kind of up in the air too. They all decided
(24:09):
to live in exile, and um Voytech lived with them,
and he eventually went to the Edinburgh Zoo and became
one of the most popular attractions at the zoo for years. Yeah,
and was just sort of like in the army, was
a part of the community. Apparently. They would take him
around to kids parties, he would go to concerts and
dances and you know, just a beloved bear. He knew
(24:32):
how to yell free bird at inappropriate times. Uh an
amazing there at the age of twenty two. Sadly, Voidtech
would die in nineteen sixty three. I don't know about
how old bears are, but that seems like a decent
life for a bear. How old twenty two? Sure, but
they think, uh, partially why this bear died was because
(24:55):
of damage to his esophagus from that cute little cigarette
tra that they would play. Isn't that awful? Yes? It is.
So There's a woman named um Or. Her last name
is or Eileen or she wrote Voytech, the bear Polish
war hero. There's a colon in there. You can figure
out where it goes um And she said that she
(25:19):
lives in this farm that Voytech lived in in Scotland
right before he was moved to the zoo, and his
claw marks are still on some of those trees, which
that would be quite a sight to see. Amazing yep,
I thought, so too, Is that how you got on Voytech?
That sure is Chuck. All right, we're gonna take our
final break and come back with the tail of another
(25:39):
animal adopted by the military right after this. Okay, so
(26:12):
final amazing animal story. Yet another animal adopted by a
military unit. This was not a bear in Poland, though,
this was a very cute dog. St. Bernard uh Bumps
a B A M. S. E. That was adopted by
the Royal Norwegian Navy during World War Two. That's right,
(26:32):
and he kind of got drafted along with his owner,
who's a guy named Lieutenant Erling half though great name
and Erling hafto Um was a harbor master in a
town called Honingsbag on the Margaroya Island. You're really going
for it, huh. I don't think I got that last
(26:52):
one right uh in Norway, right on the north coast
of Norway. Um. And so, uh, bumps Of would just
kind of like hang out with with Lieutenant Haft. He
was like the family dog. And very early on UM
he became beloved at least with the Haft family. When
little Victus half to the three year old daughter fell
(27:13):
ill and apparently bumps Of would not leave her side
for like this whole twelve days when she was at
death Store until she recovered. Yeah. So they thought this
dog is good luck. Uh it. I don't know if
they thought it healed her daughter, probably not her their daughter,
but but they thought it was certainly a good omen
and at the very least an exceedingly loyal dog. Yeah.
(27:35):
And this was in thirty eight and thirty nine World
War two, UM breaks out and so Hafto was called
active duty. Uh. And this is you know something if
you've seen the movie Done Kirk Um. They would take
you know, civilian ships and basically make them into warships,
not necessarily like battleships, but bring them into active duty
(27:56):
as well. So they gave him a whaling ship called
the Rod with two d's and said you are now
a coastal patrol boat and you are a patrol boat captain, right. So, Um,
he was part of the Norwegian Army and as a
ship's dog, which Bumps so was. He was the ship's
dog already. Um. When he was entered into the log
(28:18):
he became part of the Norwegian Royal Navy himself. So
he was Bumps a sea dog of the Royal nor
Norwegian Navy. Right, that's right. Where did you find this stuff?
By the way? Oh this uh, this came from Famous
Dogs in History. I loved it. Uh, that's probably one
of your favorite websites. And then Kit and Morgan Benson
(28:39):
had something on Fine the Grave, and then there's some
other ones I've seen. Um. So BUMPSA and Lieutenant have
To are just kind of hanging out doing their thing
coastal patrolling on the Thorod. And it's not just the
two of them, but Lieutenant have To was in charge
of the Thorod and there's this whole crew and they're
starting to love Bumps of like more and more and more.
Of course. Um. Eventually the Nazis invade Norway que the booing,
(29:04):
and the Norwegian King says, everybody, let's get out of here,
we're gonna go form a government in exile in the
UK Scotland, specifically Scotland. Um, everybody regrouped there and so
the Thorod and Captain Lieutenant Half too, we're put in
charge of mind sweeping around Dundee, Scotland. That was their
thing now keeping the UK safe. Yeah, And just like
(29:27):
it's very similar to the to the votech story in
a lot of ways. They both ended up in Scotland.
They were like an hour and a half car drive
apart from one another at the same time. That's crazy,
isn't it. So just like with the votech story, Bombsa
becomes beloved by the town, Uh, goes on the pub.
Crawls would sit at the bar. Apparently there was one
story where there was a cat sitting up on the
(29:48):
seat that was usually occupied by the dog, and of
course Bumpsa comes in. It's like, get out of here, cat,
it's my seat. And not only did he go to
the bar just to hang out, he went to the
bar to drink year with his um fellow sailors. Again,
drink beer out of a bowl. It's not good for
a dog, but kind of hilarious still. But he was
(30:09):
also kind of the d D because he was well
known for going to the bars and the pubs to
get his sailors back to the ship before curfew so
they wouldn't get in trouble. That's right. He learned how
to open doors. Uh. He wore a little hat just
very cute. You can see picture of this little sailor's cap.
So once he learned to open doors, he could visit
(30:29):
like all the businesses all around the harbor. People just
like come on in. After he learned to open doors,
he learned to ride the bus. Yeah, they gave him
a bus pass that he wore around his neck. Yes,
that is super cute. But not only that, Chuck Wick
makes it even cuter is bumps Of would go to
the bus stop and sit there and wait, and the
bus riders would stop and let him on, and he
would climb up to the top deck and sit there
(30:50):
and like look out and be like, hey, I'm bumps Of,
so great good to meet you. So I think you
said that he was. He ended up being good luck
still to the sold ors he was. There were more
than one instance where Bumps I would either break up
a fight or foil some sort of crime. There was
one soldier who was getting mugged, and Bumps came up
(31:11):
and attacked the mugger. One guy went overboard I think
he was kind of drunk at the end of the
night and fell in the water, and BUMPSA jumped in
and you know, barked and barked and then kept this
guy afloat until they could rescue him. Yeah. Like saved
at least two men's life. Pretty pretty great. Um. He
also was extraordinarily brave UM when when the Thorod would
(31:34):
Um would be out patrolling and take take fire from
German planes. He would sit next to the tail gunner
I guess, in the tail of the boat that's what
they call it, Um, and with a little helmet, a
little steel helmet on his head and just sit there
and probably point with his paw like there's one over there.
I can't imagine the sound. I guess it just didn't
(31:56):
didn't bother him, and he would not leave the gunners
side until the attack had been all the Nazis were dead,
so Um he'd swim out to the down planes and
chew the throats out of the rounded. He was a
full service sea dog. So at one point, Uh, this
(32:16):
dog was transferred. I'm sorry, the uh, the owner was
transferred to another ship and everybody was like no, no, no,
you're not taking Bumps with you. Yeah, he was going
to and they're like no, like this dog stay in
the here. He's like, I'm the captain, and the dad
of the dog said nope, he belongs to this ship.
Yeah and that town, and that's what happened. They left
(32:37):
him there, which was the right and it was temporary,
of course, it's not like he was It was just
for a few months. So they were eventually reunited. So
Bumps was like this beloved sea dog, not just in
this town of Dundee um, I think it was actually Montrose, Scotland, um,
but all over the UK, and it basically became like
(32:58):
the mascot of the entire Norwegian Royal Navy. He was
beloved is a really good way to put it. He
was known as a peacemaker, a lifesaver, very brave, very
sweet um. And so when he died it was a big,
big deal. He was only something like, I think, um,
seven seven years old. Yeah, you know these St Bernard's
(33:20):
as bigger dogs have a little shorter lifespan, I think, um,
but a pretty good seven years and the whole town
came out in a big way. Yeah. They canceled school
so the school children could attend his funeral. They gave
him um a funeral with full military honors. His casket
was draped in the Norwegian flag, like it was a
(33:41):
big deal. Soldiers came from all over the place. The
town just basically stopped that day to attend bumps his funeral.
That's right. Over a thousand sailors and villagers attended this funeral.
Pretty great, and I think there there's there. Does this
one have two statues or was that votech Voytech had
two statues, one in crack Out and one in Edinburgh,
(34:05):
and then Bumpsa has one in I believe in Dundee, Scotland,
and then the other one is going to be in Norway.
I don't know if they've raised it yet. And then
in two thousand six to the story gets even better
because Bumpsa was awarded posthumously, of course, the People's Dispensary
for Sick Animals Gold Medal, uh as the animals version
(34:27):
of the George's Cross or the George Cross right, and
who accepted it on his behalf uh vigdis the little
girl who was on death's door until she got those
sweet sweet st Bernard legs. Pretty amazing, amazing. Well that's
it for amazing animals, everybody. If you want to know
more about amazing animals, just go start reading about them.
(34:48):
It will turn your day around. Or just walk outside
and look around. Yeah, go kiss your closest animal. How
about that? Uh? And since I said that, it's time
for a listener mail, kudos guys on the MG three
seventy podcast we got that must have been a good one.
We got a lot of good response from that one,
as well as other people that were like, aviation is
(35:10):
tough and you guys did an okay job. I didn't
see any of those. Yeah, there were a couple of
those technical details, but I think we told a good
story in the end. I live in Kuala Lampur and
have even flown on MH three seventy for this incident.
You covered this one really well and handled the cultural
issues well. To really appreciate that you reached conclusion and
(35:30):
a logical, well reasoned and unbiased manner. This includes your
reference to other UH suicide flights like the Silk Care
flight you are spot on Malaysia is not interested in
the truth in this case and are happy to see
this as an act of God. Hence the prayer they
show on every single flight since yes, they put a
prayer on the screen before every takeoff, asking God to
(35:53):
bless the flight. As Westerners, we will never understand this
fatalistic approach, as we can see a real cause for
this terrible event that they prefer to pass off as
God's will. This riff between how we think about it
and how they think about it is real. I don't
mean to be bigoted or anything, but I have lived
in this culture for forty years now and understand that
people do think differently. My wonderful wife that is from here,
(36:16):
even agrees with this assessment. So well done, guys. This
one of your best podcasts, well researched and well presented,
calling it as it is, sadly, cheers Pete. Thanks Pete,
that was nice of him. Yeah, um, that's great. I
don't have anything to add great. Uh. If you want
to get in touch with this like Pete did, Thanks again, Pete.
(36:38):
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