RIP HARAMBE :(

[Duchess]

I think those who breach whatever separates them from the animals and get killed deserve it. I only feel bad for the children whose very own parents put them in harms way and furthermore, if your child doesn't respect authority, that's on you, you raised it, most kids fear consequences. I don't have the same compassion that many of you have. I'm not going to send the lady death threats or anything like that but I feel indifferent to what she's going through right now.

[HairOfTheDog]

Kids meaning teenagers or little kids like this one and the one mauled by the painted dogs? I'm talking about little kids here. Not drunken idiot teenagers.

I'm not following you, Gunnar. The boy who was killed by Polar Bears at the zoo in New York was 11 -- he wasn't a drunken teenager.

Anyway, as I said, I don't know if zoo injuries and deaths are happening more these days; that might well be. I haven't seen any statistics. I just remember hearing and being warned about them on rare occasion back in the day too.

The linked list of attacks by big cats compiled by the Humane Society is kind of interesting. By and large, most of them involved big cats that idiots were keeping as pets or using in private exhibitions. But, a few involve children at zoos, like these:

August 6, 1995 Phoenix, AZ: A mountain lion at the Phoenix Zoo gashed a 5-year old boy’s arm after he wandered too close to the cage. He required stitches to close the wound and received scratches on the side of his chest.

March 16, 1999 Colorado Springs, CO: A 6-year-old boy was severely injured by a leopard at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo after he climbed over a rope to get a closer look at the animal. Three months earlier, a woman was scratched by a tiger at the zoo after sticking her hand into his cage.

http://www.humanesociety.org/assets/pdfs...idents.pdf

[Maggot]

I wonder who would win if they fought a rhinoceros or a gorilla.

[Blindgreed1]

Kids meaning teenagers or little kids like this one and the one mauled by the painted dogs? I'm talking about little kids here. Not drunken idiot teenagers.

I'm not following you, Gunnar. The boy who was killed by Polar Bears at the zoo in New York was 11 -- he wasn't a drunken teenager.

Anyway, as I said, I don't know if zoo injuries and deaths are happening more these days; that might well be. I haven't seen any statistics. I just remember hearing and being warned about them on rare occasion back in the day too.

The linked list of attacks by big cats compiled by the Humane Society is kind of interesting. By and large, most of them involved big cats that idiots were keeping as pets or using in private exhibitions. But, a few involve children at zoos, like these:

August 6, 1995 Phoenix, AZ: A mountain lion at the Phoenix Zoo gashed a 5-year old boy’s arm after he wandered too close to the cage. He required stitches to close the wound and received scratches on the side of his chest.

March 16, 1999 Colorado Springs, CO: A 6-year-old boy was severely injured by a leopard at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo after he climbed over a rope to get a closer look at the animal. Three months earlier, a woman was scratched by a tiger at the zoo after sticking her hand into his cage.

http://www.humanesociety.org/assets/pdfs...idents.pdf

WE probably posted at the same time. I didn't see the clarification before I posted. 11 is borderline IMO. It's that limbo between teenager and little kid where they try to impress the bigger kids or do anything on a dare. 5 and 6? Those are little kids, but both of those incidents were in the 90's. I was grown and had 2 kids of my in the 90's.

[Blindgreed1]

I wonder who would win if they fought a rhinoceros or a gorilla.

That's a good match up.

[HairOfTheDog]

Welp, the publicly available tracking databases for captive animal attacks incidents start in 1990 (from what I could find). So, there's no quick way to compare the number of total incidents per year or per visit today to back when we were kids.

I think the rhino would win in a match against a gorilla. Rhinos are much bigger, ill-tempered, more aggressive, and they're deadly horny. I think the gorilla would be too intelligent to go up against the rhino though.

[Blindgreed1]

Welp, the publicly available tracking databases for captive animal attacks incidents start in 1990, so there's no quick way to compare the number of total incidents per year or per visit today to back when we were kids.

I think the rhino would win in a match against a gorilla. Rhinos are much bigger, ill-tempered, more aggressive, and they're deadly horny. I think the gorilla would be too intelligent to go up against the rhino though.

The gorilla could climb a tree and wait until the rhino wasn't looking and snap his neck like a twig!

[HairOfTheDog]

That's bananas! Have you seen the size of rhinos' necks?

Adult rhinos (black or white) are like 5 times heavier than the largest gorillas.

It would be like username taking on Biggie. User is smaller, smarter and more crafty, but she'd get her bony ass kicked.

[Blindgreed1]

That's bananas! Have you seen the size of rhinos' necks?

Adult rhinos (black or white) are like 5 times heavier than the largest gorillas.

It would be like username taking on Biggie. User is smaller, smarter and more crafty, but she'd get her bony ass kicked.

We're talking about an animal that can crush coconuts here (with his bare hands)... He grabs the rhino by the horn and ear, does a sick back flip over the rhinos neck and just powers his neck into a full 180. Snap. It's over!

[sally]

The hippo would beat up both of them.

[Duchess]

They'll bite a man in half.

[HairOfTheDog]

That's bananas! Have you seen the size of rhinos' necks?

Adult rhinos (black or white) are like 5 times heavier than the largest gorillas.

It would be like username taking on Biggie. User is smaller, smarter and more crafty, but she'd get her bony ass kicked.

We're talking about an animal that can crush coconuts here (with his bare hands)... He grabs the rhino by the horn and ear, does a sick back flip over the rhinos neck and just powers his neck into a full 180. Snap. It's over!

Even if your kung fu gorilla was agile enough to jump from the tree onto the rhino's neck region without squashing or horning his own coconuts, the rhino could shake the gorilla's hairy ass of his back off long before its massive neck could be snapped.

Sorry Gunnar. You're gonna have to teach your gorilla how to accurately use a high powered firearm (or tranquilizer gun) with a long distance scope if you want him to win this fight.

However, I think your gorilla could probably take down a grizzly bear with his bare hands.

[blueberryhill]

That's the same story a witness told the day it happened. Wouldn't it be great if it turns out that she wasn't to blame for all this and all of the self righteous assholes that passed judgement on her felt like shit? Never happen because something else will pop up on their FB feed to judge and they will forget about it, but how cool would that be?

I too disagree with the people who are calling for the mother's head, and/or suggesting that the parents should have been shot instead of Harambe, and/or failing to acknowledge that shit happens to children of even good responsible parents, etc..

But, I don't believe there's any way the mother can or thshould be absolved of all blame. If it were my child, I would absolutely blame myself for my son having gotten the opportunity to do what he said he wanted to do by sneaking into the gorilla exhibit. I'd hope my nightmare experience would help other parents be more diligent at zoos.

I'd also expect the zoo to take immediate responsibility for enhancing its barriers. And, I'd feel like absolute shit about the death of Harambe, but be forever grateful for my son surviving relatively unscathed.

I think the mother should not have been on the phone. Her son had been bugging her about "swimming with the gorillas." He was excited about getting closer....alert to mother.....get off phone and watch your kid. Apparently, this child had expressed a strong desire to get closer to the gorillas....that was a red flag right there....

I hate how these phones have taken on a life of their own and replaced social interaction, safe driving, walking, parenting, etc.....I don't even have a dang smart phone. My old flip phone does a fine job for me.....My grandchildren never have their heads out of the phone.....

The Zoo did the right thing. No one can predict behavior of a wild animal and think of the outrage if the boy had been killed....If I were the owner of the Zoo, I would have done the same thing, because the life of a child should take precedence over that of an animal although I loved that animal.....

[Maggot]

It's been over a year since I've been on facebook. I tried to log off the fucking thing and there isn't a log off button but............I saw this on it.

Well that didn't freakin work. Anyways its a picture of Bill Cosby and it says "I could have tranquilized that gorilla"

[Blindgreed1]

It's been over a year since I've been on facebook. I tried to log off the fucking thing and there isn't a log off button but............I saw this on it.

Well that didn't freakin work. Anyways its a picture of Bill Cosby and it says "I could have tranquilized that gorilla"

I hadn't been on in over 2 years up until a few weeks ago. I didn't miss it and honestly the technology is all that has changed.

[crash]

Anyways its a picture of Bill Cosby and it says "I could have tranquilized that gorilla"

[HairOfTheDog]

^ Effin' Cosby -- he deserves the mockery of the warped meme-makers. That made me laugh too.

But going so low as to exploit Snowflake (RIP) for a cheap laugh!?



Okay...it is kinda funny.

[Blindgreed1]

^ Effin' Cosby -- he deserves the mockery of the warped meme-makers. That made me laugh too.

But going so low as to exploit Snowflake (RIP) for a cheap laugh!?



Okay...it is kinda funny.

That's protest worthy right there!

[HairOfTheDog]

I think you're referring to the baby bison at Yellowstone. Why in the world anyone would think a wild critter was cold is beyond me. His mama and the rest of the herd wouldn't accept him back after that. :(

I just read about that incident for the first time this morning. It sounds to me like the men who picked up the bison thought they were helping by taking it to a ranger's station, and that the calf was abandoned by its mother and herd before they got involved, if their story is true.

Snip:
At the time, Yellowstone rangers said: 'In this case, park rangers tried repeatedly to reunite the newborn bison calf with the herd. These efforts failed.

'The bison calf was later euthanized because it was abandoned and causing a dangerous situation by continually approaching people and cars along the roadway.'

The rangers added that they do not have the facilities to care for a calf that cannot forage on its own, and could not ship it elsewhere because they also lack the equipment to put the baby through a month of mandatory quarantine.

'Nor is it the mission of the National Park Service to rescue animals: our goal is to maintain the ecological processes of Yellowstone,' they said. 'Even though humans were involved in this case, it is not uncommon for bison, especially young mothers, to lose or abandon their calves.'

The statement added that abandoned calves 'typically die of starvation or predation'.

Asked what he would do differently next time, Shamash (one of the men who picked up the bison) said he would leave the animal alone, adding: 'It’s the way they are in Yellowstone Park. They don’t want to interfere with nature.'

Yellowstone is the only place in the United States where bison have lived continuously since prehistoric times.

The park is home to 4,900 of the animals, which it says injure more people than any of its other animals.

The park berated visitors for taking selfies and recording video near the bison, flouting regulations demanding people stay at least 25 yards away.

'Bison can run three times faster than humans can sprint and are unpredictable and dangerous,' they explained.

'Visitors must give the animals enough space and alter their own behavior to avoid interacting with an animal in close proximity.

'Do not approach wildlife, no matter how tame or calm they appear.
'Always obey instructions from park staff on scene.'

Five visitors were seriously injured last year after approaching bison too closely, the park said.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...z4AXmhu8UQ

[Duchess]

At the time, Yellowstone rangers said: 'In this case, park rangers tried repeatedly to reunite the newborn bison calf with the herd. These efforts failed.

'The bison calf was later euthanized because it was abandoned and causing a dangerous situation by continually approaching people and cars along the roadway.'

I wasn't aware it had been abandoned before the people took it to the rangers. :(