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The maniac who broke into Moo Deng’s crib finally got his due.
The BBC reports that a Thai court fined a man 10,000 baht, or around $300, after he was caught entering the zoo enclosure of the baby pygmy hippo, which became an internet sensation in 2024.
Authorities arrested the intruder last month. Security footage released by local media and widely shared online shows a man wearing a beanie, tank top, shorts, and sandals hopping into the enclosure at the Khao Kheow Open Zoo. As he films Moo Deng with a tablet, the man circles the young creature and comes within just several feet of her.
According to reports, the man was inside the enclosure for one or two minutes before staff noticed him, and made no attempt to flee when they called the police. Moo Deng was “startled” by the encounter, the staff said, but unharmed.
Now, Narongwit Chodchoy, who runs the zoo, says that a local court found the troublemaker of trespassing. The decision affirms that “no one can violate animals’ rights, no matter whether they are in an enclosure or in the wild,” the zoo director told Agence France-Presse, via the BBC.
The intrusion, however, does mean a slight paradigm shift in zoo security.
“We train staff on what to do if any animals escape, but from now on, we will have to train them on what to do if there are any intruders,” Chodchoy said. “We learned from this lesson and will not allow it to happen again — not to Moo Deng and not to other animals in the zoo.”
The break-in is a sign of just how crazy people have gone over the irresistibly adorable baby hippo — or it’s a sign of the lengths some will go to latch onto something viral to get cool clips for their Instagram. In any case, Moo Deng’s star-power clearly hasn’t waned.
More on beloved animals: JONATHAN THE 193-YEAR-OLD TORTOISE IS STILL ALIVE, REPEAT HE HAS NOT DIED
