Strike 76 against Zoos. You're out?

[Moist Happenings]

http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1137834300457

This is just sad.

Okay so this kid gets bit by a bear..after entering a restricted area, climbing a four foot fence, and then sticking his hand through ANOTHER fence, into the bear's habitat.

Darwin > Idiocy? Nope.

Stupid Kid 2 - Bears 0

[DCSL]

This just reaffirms for me how much I hate most children. And people who have children and don't watch them.

[Back]

Pandas are just as bad. Dont let the Oreo Cookie thing throw you.

[DCSL]

Dude. Pandas? Nature's bitches.

1. They're colored in a distinctly NON-FORESTY way.

2. They eat only one thing, a substance they can barely digest.

3. They hate mating with each other and continuing the species.

The only way they could be more of a totally retarded species is if they were to burst into flame periodically.

That said... they're really fluffy and cute. Even more so when they're puppies painted to look like pandas.

http://www.geocities.com/dexcsl/pandadog.jpg

[Back]

Dude. No Panda beats DC's Butterstick (http://www.obeybutterstick.com/).

[Sean of the Thread]

This just reaffirms for me how much I hate most children. And people who have children and don't watch them.


I guess this all could have been avoided with an abortion.

[Skirmisher]

I guess this all could have been avoided with an abortion.

Finally you see the light.

[Snapp]

This is really sad.

People need to WATCH their damn kids!

[Kuyuk]

We should put the kid down instead, if he had rabies, after we put him down, we would know right? And besides, the bears were not the stupid ones.



K.

[CrystalTears]

WTF. Why did the bears get punished? They were being BEARS! The kid's parents should be fined for the little fuckup trespassing and being an all around idiot for climbing a bear's cage. Hello! Darwin City, moron.

Ugh, these types of things just irritate me.

[Skirmisher]

So the little one made it through TWO fences while their parents did nothing.

I hope the Zoo sues the parents for all costs for the putting down of the animals, as well as all costs entailed in obtaining two new healthy bears.

[Moist Happenings]

The bears were punished because of the American Legal system, upon further reflection. Not the zoo's fault.

Basically, this is how it would go if the Zoo stuck up for the bears:

1. Stupid Kid gets bit by bears.
2. Stupid parent blames zoo; demands rabid animals be put down.
3. Zoo laughs at stupid parent with stupid kid; calls them stupid.
4. Stupid parent brings stupid kid and Zoo to stupid american court.
5. Stupid american court rules that Zoo should have been watching closer.
6. Stupid parent gets huge settlement.
7. Zoo closes.

It's a legal decision to kill the bears. Stupid parent will probably still sue.

[CrystalTears]

Chica, do you have a spare room? Cause this country blows.

[Daniel]

The bites didn't even require stitches. It's not like th ething mauled the motherfucker.

[DeV]

I hope those parents get jack shit if they sue.

[Moist Happenings]

I think most of us would hope that too.

But my mind keeps wandering to that case back in the 90s where there was a guy robbing a house who fell through the skylight onto the kitchen counter, cutting himself on a knife, who sued the people he was robbing, and won a huge settlement.

[Skeeter]

Dude. Pandas? Nature's bitches.

1. They're colored in a distinctly NON-FORESTY way.

2. They eat only one thing, a substance they can barely digest.

3. They hate mating with each other and continuing the species.

The only way they could be more of a totally retarded species is if they were to burst into flame periodically.

That said... they're really fluffy and cute. Even more so when they're puppies painted to look like pandas.

http://www.geocities.com/dexcsl/pandadog.jpg



This is true comedy. Bravo

[Landrion]

I have a vague recollection of something about bears. Once a bear tastes human blood it becomes more dangerous. I *think* you have to put a bear down that has done so because it becomes a danger to its keepers.

As for the children thing, well, yeah they do require a lot of monitoring. Especially in public. I tend to have less fear of my two year old doing something that dangerous than someone swiping him. But it sounds like this kid really wasnt being watched.

One thing being a parent made me rethink. I used to have that same attitude "darwin/stupid kid" about children. I swear, kids have an amazing troubleseeker instinct. They are fucking geniuses at getting hurt or into danger. Im not condoning lack of attention (especially this one), but you would be seriously amazed at how quick they can mess themselves up.

[Jolena]

While I can certainly attest to the statement that children can get themselves into amazing amounts of trouble quickly, I think that it takes a lot longer than you might realize for a child to climb two fences. I think the parents were neglectful in watching that child and should be held liable.

[Satira]

The only way they could be more of a totally retarded species is if they were to burst into flame periodically.

ROFLMAO.

[Sean]

Odds on a new Colbert Report bears threat down?

[Satira]

If he passes this one up, he loses.

[Killer Kitten]

I have a vague recollection of something about bears. Once a bear tastes human blood it becomes more dangerous. I *think* you have to put a bear down that has done so because it becomes a danger to its keepers.

Having spent ten years of my life working with a zoo collection that included two species of bear, I feel safe in saying that the above is untrue. Bears are dangerous and all zoos and zookeepers treat them as such, no matter how fond of them as individuals they might be.

At our zoo we had black bears and spectacled bears. Both species were omnivorous, and the favorite food by far of both was peanut butter, followed by grapes and honey. I could get any medication into them if I smeared it with peanut butter.

We mainly fed ours omnivore chow with fresh fruits and vegetables and would use honey and peanuts to help train behaviors. For treat items we'd freeze fish in a cardboard box or make something called 'blood ice'. That was made by freezing chunks of yams, carrots, grapes and apples in ice made from blood that had drained from meat we fed out to carnivores. The bears had a lot of fun licking and chewing the ice to get at the treats inside.

Our bears were pretty well trained and liked people, but nobody on staff would think about putting a hand or finger where the bears could get at it. Our motto was always "Safety first'.

When vaccinating the bears we used a dart gun. The last two years I was at the zoo we had trained them well enough to use a pole syringe. I would never have dreamed of sticking my hand in their cages to vaccinate with a hand syringe. I liked my hands way too much.

We vaccinated for Rabies every year, as I'm sure most zoos do. The problem is that the vaccine is not labeled for bears. Most vaccines are labeled for domestic species only, and zoos use them on other mammals. As far as I know, there's never been a test of the efficacy of rabies vaccine in nonlabeled species. We always did it because we figured it couldn't hurt, and we'd rather be safe than sorry, particularly with a disease like Rabies that is communicable to humans.

Had the incident happened at our zoo, chances are the outcome would have been the same - the bears would have been put down so the brain tissue could be tested for rabies. Rabies is a public health issue and a reportable disease, and rules for those are pretty much written in stone.

Personally, I think it blows, too. Why in the world wouldn't you keep a small child on one of those child leashes if you're taking it into a public place where there is potential for it to get lost or injured? The deaths of those two bears are entirely the fault of the parents of the child who was bitten. They were negligent.

[Tsa`ah]

Pretty much just going to echo what KK posted.

The "taste" for human blood is a myth. I would have to guess it became wide spread with low budget Hollywood flicks about bears mauling the shit out of innocent bystanders in the woods.

Now a wild bear would be put down, but note for the "taste" it acquired, but rather it would view humans as a potential source of food and order take out whenever food became scarce in it's habitat.

The bears were put down for one reason, a complete lack of rabies testing for live bears. They didn't know which bear bit the child that belonged to complete morons, so they had to put both down to test brain tissue for rabies.

Why they didn't just treat the fucking kid with a vaccination series and quarantine the bears for a few months is beyond me.

I chalk the whole thing up to bureaucratic and parental stupidity. Can't really call the 4 year old kid stupid, he didn't know any better ... his parents are the ones we need to call fucktards.

[Krendeli]

Oughta had let...

1. the bear live--what the hell did he know
2. the kid live--what the hell did he know
3. someone put down the parents--dumb ass morons probably shouldn't had the kid anyway.

[Numbers]

What ended up happening to the kid and parents? I'm hoping that the parent was at least charged with some form of negligence for standing by while his four year old stuck his hand through a bear fence. And that they'll be banned for life from all zoos, amusement parks, or any other venue where parental responsibility is required (i.e., outside.)

[peam]

Those bears were cute. I've seen them a few times at Maymont.

It's a huge deal here within Richmond's local media. Most people are furious that the bears were slaughtered, especially since the wound is very controversial. I'd imagine a bear bite would require some kind of medical treatment, aside from antibiotics. They don't seem to be the type of animal that would just nip.

[Artha]

A friend of mine used to get those bears high :(

[Snapp]

Why they didn't just treat the fucking kid with a vaccination series and quarantine the bears for a few months is beyond me.

That would make way too much sense.

Isn't that would they would do if a kid got bitten by a random wild animal, like a squirrel or something?

[Killer Kitten]

That would make way too much sense.

Isn't that would they would do if a kid got bitten by a random wild animal, like a squirrel or something?

If they didn't have the animal to test, they'd make the kid go through the post-exposure rabies series.

If they have the animal available, they put it down and test the brain. The brain testing thing isn't just for bears, they also do it with dogs and cats. I know back when I was growing up the post-exposure rabies series was very painful and expensive. I don't know if it has changed a lot since then, I've never dealt with an exposure.

It doesn't sound as if the bear inflicted much of a wound, I think the kid might have had something on its hands that attracted the bear, like peanut butter or fruit. That's probably what the bear was going for.

[Hakonne]

Oughta had let...

1. the bear live--what the hell did he know
2. the kid live--what the hell did he know
3. someone put down the parents--dumb ass morons probably shouldn't had the kid anyway.


Winner!

Hak

[DCSL]

If they didn't have the animal to test, they'd make the kid go through the post-exposure rabies series.

If they have the animal available, they put it down and test the brain. The brain testing thing isn't just for bears, they also do it with dogs and cats. I know back when I was growing up the post-exposure rabies series was very painful and expensive. I don't know if it has changed a lot since then, I've never dealt with an exposure.

It doesn't sound as if the bear inflicted much of a wound, I think the kid might have had something on its hands that attracted the bear, like peanut butter or fruit. That's probably what the bear was going for.

Er. No, they don't put down dogs and cats. When I was little, I was bitten by a cat, my neighbor's cat. It was a suspicious bite because I didn't even see the cat before it bit me, just came out of nowhere. Still got two little marks where the fangs sank into me.

They did not put down the cat and test for rabies. They held it for observation for a week or so. I didn't immediately have to start the series of shots either (thankfully.. I was really scared of taking those needles in the stomach). But, yeah. No immediately euthanized kitty.

[Killer Kitten]

Er. No, they don't put down dogs and cats. When I was little, I was bitten by a cat, my neighbor's cat. It was a suspicious bite because I didn't even see the cat before it bit me, just came out of nowhere. Still got two little marks where the fangs sank into me.

They did not put down the cat and test for rabies. They held it for observation for a week or so. I didn't immediately have to start the series of shots either (thankfully.. I was really scared of taking those needles in the stomach). But, yeah. No immediately euthanized kitty.

Sorry, I should have been clearer. I meant in a shelter/institution situation. A couple years ago a stray cat we had trapped bit a zoo supervisor. The zoo had one of the vets euthanize it and we sent the head off for testing.

In the shelter I work at now, unowned cats or dogs that bite anybody are euthanized and the head sent. Owned animals that bite a person (usually cats on spay/neuter day) are euthanized if the owner gives permission or held for 10 days for observation if the owner wants the pet back.

Should have been clearer about that. That's what I get for posting before my morning wake-up shower. Thanks for catching it!