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Experts generally agree that the ferocity of piranhas has been greatly exaggerated.
The ex-President was accompanied by a hundred journalists, many of whom had never been in the jungle before. For weeks, Amazonian fishermen had caught piranhas with hook and line, throwing them into this netted off area. When Roosevelt and his entourage 'happened' upon the river, the Brazilians told them not to venture into the water because they would be immediately eaten by piranhas. Demonstrating their point, the Brazilians took a live cow, slit her udder, and drove her, bleeding, into a seething mass of starving, trapped piranhas. The newspapers around the world described this scene, embellishing the account by saying anyone entering the water would be immediately attacked and devoured by these fearsome small fish.