March of the idiots

[johnridley]

What the heck is up with all the morons jumping fences to get some face time with bears and such lately? Seems like every month some moron decides to go on in and get a chunk of flesh removed.

Apparently the latest is a woman in Berlin who decided to go say hi to a polar bear.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/04/11/polar.bear.attack/index.html

I mean, OK, you wanna go pet something, fine, I don't think my first choice would be an 800 pound, 9 foot tall carnivore. Especially since the encounter would take place in the water, where IT is at home and humans definitely are not.

Do these people think if something is "cute" that it doesn't behave just like any other animal? That somehow they're exempt from the food chain or from territorial aggression? Or are they just morons?

Comments

[renniekins.livejournal.com]

I'm suspecting it's just that they're morons.

However I mostly wanted to say: wow that's a graphic photograph they've included with the article! I'm amused and surprised....

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Aren't camera phones amazing?
Actually, there are always tons of cameras at zoos. The question is whether there's someone taking pictures while something like this is going on.

I still can't decide whether they think that putting an animal in a zoo automatically makes it tame, or if they don't realize what "wild animal" means, or if they just don't even think. I think it's some combination of the three. I am sure that nobody who's ever had to deal with an animal significantly larger than they are (cattle, horses, etc) would even think about doing anything like that.