According to photographer Fernando Camara who snapped the photo on the left during a recent sightseeing jaunt to the Brazilian island of Marajo, it’s traditional for the military police there to ride water buffaloes, which are docile, 1,000-pound creatures.
“It has become a bit of a tourist attraction,” Camara said. “But it was started with the objectives of reinforcing safety and maintaining the culture of the local population.”
Maintaining culture, sure. I get that. Then again, WHY? When it comes to police animals, modes of police transportation—or in this case, both—slow, docile, and unwieldy are the EXACT OPPOSITE attributes of what is either practical or desired for the job.
Aside from all that, while poking around this story for supporting information, I just learned that Hedy Lamarr sued Warner Bros. for $100,000 over Blazing Saddles’ running joke parodying her name. Want to know how Mel Brooks handled it? Check out the below must-watch video of him telling the story.
