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Something stinks about this story, which made its way to Team Snopes in summer of 1998: This entertaining news item appeared in the Weekly World News, a publication not known for adherence to strict journalistic standards. Fantastic stories invented cut of whole cloth regularly appear in its pages, and this pachyderm tale is but another of that ilk. Photo or not, the story is a fake. There is no zoo in Paderborn, Germany, and a check of that town's phone book fails to reveal listings for either the victim Riesfeldt or detective Erik Dern. Moreover, no reputable news agency carried the story of the unfortunate Friedrich Riesfeldt's demise. Even if we didn't know about the lack of a zoo in Paderborn, this story should have leapt off the page as something that had to be untrue. The key fact in this tale is Riesfeldt's foolhardy yet somewhat successful single-handed attempt to irrigate the elephant's posterior. No wild creature willingly submits to an enema. A lone zookeeper attempting to administer one to a pachyderm wouldn't get very far; the animal would easily brush him aside. The photograph supplied by the Weekly World News is clearly a fake. The posture of the elephant makes one think of a circus animal with the stand it was posed on airbrushed out, but more telling is the lack of enema implements in the shot. If Riesfeldt had truly been overcome by a sudden dam burst of excreta, where are the tools he was using? Where's the tubing and the source of water? (And who took the picture?) Another look at the photo confirms this shot was taken either during daylight hours or in a well-lit circus tent, certainly not in a field after sunset. According to the Weekly World News story, Riesfeldt's body was discovered by the night watchman two hours after Riesfeldt's final conversation with another co-worker in which he announced he was staying late to irrigate the elephant. I am reliably informed elephants do not cast shadows at night.
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