Excuse me while I do your job for you.

[Mamadrae]

Yesterday there was a family outing to the zoo. You'd think in a place where you simply observe animals there would be no SCers about...

I am amazed by the cruelty and stupidity of humanity.

Now I am not the most observant person. I miss signs all the time. I have a habit of having to find workers to hunt things down because for whatever reason I am blind and don't see them. I always apologize for my stupidity and interrupting the poor folks.

The reason I am stating this is because as we all reached the sea lions I noticed a GIANT sign in red and white. This is odd since most of the signs are in black and brown to blend into the fake rock and such. The sign went on to ask that people not throw anything into the water. Apparently people turned it into a wishing well for their petty desires and it lead to a animal dying in surgery because they needed to remove things from it's stomach. They had pictures of the animal's x-rays showing coins and rings and such.

I just finished reading this only to turn and see a kid about to pitch a handful of pennies into the pool.

I freely admit I should have yelled or said something. Instead I ran over, caught the kid's hand before he let the pennies fly, and demanded to know what he thought he was doing.

The kid's mom is standing there with a camera, apparently wanting to take a picture. She proceeds to demand to know what I am doing with her son. I tell her he was about to throw things into the pool and I was stopping him.

SM (stupid mother): Of course he was about to, I gave him the pennies to throw.
Me: There's a sign right there saying not to do that. *pointing at sign*
SM: *ignoring presence of sign* It's not going to hurt the stupid things.
Me: Obviously it will if there's a sign about it. How would you feel if someone threw a bunch of pennies through your window?
SM: It's not going to care. Animals don't have feelings anyways.
Me:

By now a keeper had come running thanks to my sister in law who knows I have a bad temper about people having no respect for life. It became the zoo's problem and I was dragged away by the family.

I later saw the child in a fancy exhibit where they let you touch live sting rays. One particular ray was looking grumpy and had it's tail sticking up out of the water. I highly considered telling the kid to grab the tail cause they like that, but refrained. Not the kid's fault his mother is a tool and she probably would have sued the zoo for not having a keeper looking after her son.

[One-Fang]

*flash back* *flash back* Anyone else remember the kid that got into the meerkat enclosure, got bit, and they had to put them all down and test for rabies because little precious mookums didn't want to take the rabies shots?

Zoo SCs suck.

[Evil Queen]

I would have mauled that kid and his mother! How dare they act that way!

[kibbles]

I feel bad for the kid, it's not his fault his mother is not teaching him right from wrong IMO.

[Boozy]

I would have mauled that kid and his mother!

Obviously, you mean that figuratively.

kibbles is right - it's not that boy's fault that his mother isn't doing her job.

[Evil Queen]

Obviously, you mean that figuratively.

Of course. It was done in the zoo, it was perfect terminology for it.

I'm a tiger! Rawr!

[myswtghst]

Having worked as a keeper, I can unfortunately tell you that nonsense like this happens all too often. Parents are either too stupid to realize that their kids could hurt an animal, or get hurt themselves, or don't have the balls to tell pweshus "No," so the poor animals get to pay.

We had an arctic fox nearly have to be put down at my zoo after a kid climbed into the exhibit - which I think I posted about a while back. Argh, I could go on all day, but I'll simply say good job and thanks for stopping at least one instance of that crap.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

And then, out in the wild in national parks and such, you'll have people tossing crackers and pieces of potato chips to birds and squirrels and other small wildlife, just because feeding wild animals is teh kyoot.

Despite numerous posted signs telling people not to do this and threatening fines if you do feed the animals.

Quite frankly, anybody who isn't prepared to teach their children right from wrong, and can't get it through their heads that animals are living beings with just as much a right to exist as humans, should keep their legs closed or their things in their pants. Teaching a child that an animal doesn't have feelings is an unbelievably cruel thing to do.

Props to the OP for standing up and doing something.

BTW, myswtghst, I don't recall reading your arctic fox story.

[XCashier]

*flash back* *flash back* Anyone else remember the kid that got into the meerkat enclosure, got bit, and they had to put them all down and test for rabies because little precious mookums didn't want to take the rabies shots?

OMG, yes. And it's still happening. Rotten laissez-faire parents don't teach their kids to respect wild animals and this crap happens.

The kids bang their fists on enclosure windows, throw garbage and junk food into pens and ponds, screech loudly enough to hurt sensitive animal ears and generally act like hooligans, while Mummsy and Daddums coo at their Widdle Pweshius' antics. And the next generation is going to be even worse.

[RedRoseSpiral]

Gah, what a dumb ass. It reminds me of the parents who let their kids bang on fish tanks then get pissy with me when I tell them to stop.

[thehippie777]

Holy poo! I am not an animal activist by any right, but I believe all life deserves to be treated with compassion and respect. I would have been highly shocked at that woman. I prolly would have had a rant-like moment...

[unclejampuff]

I love zoos. I get as excited as a five-year old. But every time I go, I see buttbonnets treating animals like that. Takes all the joy and excitement out of the trip. So despite living mere blocks away from a zoo* I almost never go.

*I live near the Buffalo Zoo. Sometimes when I walk to my boyfriend's house, I can see the giraffes and the rhinos!! I told my younger cousins this and they all flipped out.

[Samaliel]

If that asshat have half a brain, even if she thought that "animals don't have feelings", she should at least know that animals can feel pain. I hope she ends up eaten by a grue.

[greensinestro]

You know there's a reason to put a big red sign up like that, being I'm sure this kid is not the first to throw coins at the animals. I'm not sure what I would have done though. I may have said something to this kid, but I'm not sure I would have grabbed his arm. You just don't know what parents will do to anyone that touches their kids, even if it was harmless. Sorry to hear you were the one dragged away from all of this.

[Bradester]

We also had a beloved seal die at our local zoo because of something someone tossed into the water. I volunteered with the woman who trained her and she was heartbroken.

There zoo also has peacocks running around the grounds, and I remember on nearly every visit seeing small boys chasing them and trying to pull out the tail feathers.

Why, why do people think it's okay to treat other living beings with such mindless and pointless cruelty?