To have 0 sympathy for people who get too close to wild animals and end up injured?

[AlternativePerspective]

Article on the BBC this morning, two women have been injured by hump backed whales in Australia this week. Both diving with the whales, one got trapped between two whales and the other one came between a mother and baby.

Yes, it was an organised trip etc etc etc but when will people realise that when you mess with wild animals you run the risk of being hurt?

It’s the same with people who go into game parks and get out of their cars and get eaten by lions etc.

So sometimes these animals tolerate us nearby, doesn’t mean they don’t get pissed off with us though does it?

WTF can’t we just leave animals in the wild and look at them from a decent distance rather than thinking it’s our right to engage with them up close and personal?

people who go up Ben Nevis when heavy storms are predicted, meaning others have to put their lives at risk to save them. or people who go out surfing in storms meaning the life boat crews are put at risk when they get into trouble

Spot on and these people usually get warnings from others not to go, as many videos of such incidents showed.

DH tried to stroke a seagull once and still bears the scar. I laughed a lot.

We get bears in our garden. One came up to the back door and looked in the window. I was freaking the fuck out (and so were my dogs). It was terrifying close up - but climbing the fence it looked like a man in a bear suit. I run into them occasionally outside - usually in my car when they cross the road in front of me or when every tourist in Christendom stops to take photos (causing a bear jam), but sometimes when hiking or backpacking. There are reasons why we have to hang our toothpaste way up out of bear reach and miles away from tent...

I was in Thailand and went to "monkey beach" near phi phi.

The amount of people lying down next to monkeys, standing between a mother and baby, standing between the monkey and the forest etc was unbelievable. Dh and I looked from a distance. Also similar experience with a tourist and a BABOON on safari

Animals do sometimes go to humans of they're own volition. I mean, a gecko ran up the leg of my shorts when I was 10 and on holiday in the then Yugoslavia.

LakieLady they have bullfighting in Portugal, too.

A 7 year old kid was really badly gored in Bushey Park a few years ago after the parents cajoled her into going near it for a photo. Despite numerous notices warning that deer are very dangerous in the rutting season.

@Andthewinnerislucky

people who go up Ben Nevis when heavy storms are predicted, meaning others have to put their lives at risk to save them. or people who go out surfing in storms meaning the life boat crews are put at risk when they get into trouble

Spot on and these people usually get warnings from others not to go, as many videos of such incidents showed.

This really stuck with me. This past Monday we had a very small hurricane/ Tropical Storm hit us but the weekend before we were evacuating and closing the beaches and yet there were still nutters going surfing and 4 of them had to be pulled out by US. Coast Guard and the other became shark food. No sympathy what do ever

@JanewaysBun

I was in Thailand and went to "monkey beach" near phi phi.

The amount of people lying down next to monkeys, standing between a mother and baby, standing between the monkey and the forest etc was unbelievable. Dh and I looked from a distance. Also similar experience with a tourist and a BABOON on safari

Did you see the video of a large group of surfers for too close to a baby whale calf and it's mother swam around to block them from her baby and started slapping her tail at them. I was mildly disappointed she missed them

This is not a popular opinion but here goes, we have no more right to be here than any other species and yet look at the fucking arrogance of us! We catch wild creature and put them in zoos, demand they perform for us, destroy habitats, steal fur, feathers, skin, flesh, take babies from mothers whatever the fuck we want just because we can! I'm glad the mother got her own back, I'd attack anyone that got between me and my baby if I didn't know they would be safely returned

Gerry Durrell wrote that even after 20 years, he still sometimes got surprised when a cute animal was quite fierce. Intellectually he knew, but instinct said cute = not dangerous.

@iklboo

Animals do sometimes go to humans of they're own volition. I mean, a gecko ran up the leg of my shorts when I was 10 and on holiday in the then Yugoslavia.

Yup.... Just last month a kid got pulled from a boat by a great white shark in Tasmania (he survived) but afaik he was just fishing in open water with his family (not attempting to swim with/pose with or wrangle for tv)

www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/28/tasmania-shark-attack-likely-involved-35m-great-white-marine-scientists-say

I don't know what people expect tbh. The absolute worst are people who do stupid shit with apex predators. Not sure if the story about a toddler having their hand bitten off by a bear after their mum smeared honey on it is true, but in one of the Darwin Awards books, someone mentioned that her dad was a park ranger and caught a woman smearing honey on her kid's face because she was hoping a bear would lick it off and she'd get a cute photo. Luckily he talked her out of it.

Also, African elephants are moody buggers and not to be messed with, same with hippos. Just because they're herbivores doesn't mean they can't mess you up. Hippos and African cape buffalo have quite high body counts! And dolphins are rapists and necrophiliacs.

@RunningFromInsanity I always root for the bull.

@MrsSpookyM

Ha, I live near Cambridge and I saw a non-English tourist trying to get their toddler to pose next to a swan and put his hand on it for a photo recently.

Let's hope it wasn't one of Mr Asbo's clan!

@tabernacles, I can't recall if it was Vic Fezensac or Eauze, but it was one of them. Iirc, there's one in Aignan as well, which is a damn shame as Aignan is a lovely little town with a nice restaurant and very friendly people.

I think I have sympathy no matter what, some people are just incredibly stupid I guess.

I love animals but am terrified of them so don't like swimming in the sea, wouldn't go on safari or hike in bear country. I know the risks are teeny but I just couldn't do it!

This is so scary

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/may/04/i-was-swallowed-by-a-hippo

@Ishihtzuknot the only thing my rottweiler has ever stalked is my dinner! 🤣

I'm in Australia where obviously the story was reported. The people who were hurt were not asking for sympathy, the news report was along the lines of "this has happened" not "woe is me". Not sure why you are so invested.

DH and I once passed a woman while climbing scafell pike. She did not look prepared or experienced and was walking with a small dodgy looking pug. I was gonna stop her and tell her that she shouldn't try to summit but honestly thought she must just be walking in the area she was that unprepared.

A few days later I saw a newspaper piece about a pug being rescued off Snowden. Looked into it. She was rescued off Snowden the day BEFORE we saw her attempting scafell, which she bailed on thankfully, then attempted Ben Nevis the next day. She had a FB page and was raising money, all about this pug climbing the 3 peaks in 3 days.
I was fuming. For 1, pugs are not healthy, she could have killed it. Our rottie is athletic, she can do one peak every other day. 2. She wasted resources and put people in danger the 1st day and still didn't learn her lesson.

I agree OP

Animals act like animals and people lose their shit

You have invaded their home. They are going to react sometimes.

@InTheWings, that's another country off my list then!

Canoeing in hippo territory is off my list!

Fancy taking visitors / tourists on a river known to have a bad tempered bull hippo

I have seen people at Woburn safari park put bananas on their car to try and get a good picture of monkeys, and be less delighted when their aerial and windscreen wipers get ripped off.

Putting honey on a child’s face or hands to encourage a bear to lick must surely be an apocryphal story?

@Nottherealslimshady How bizarre. Why on earth would you take a pug up Ben Nevis? I can understand a terrier or a lab or a border collie, especially the latter as they need loads of exercise, but pugs are toy dogs and not the healthiest breed either. Dragging them up and down mountains is pretty cruel.

@InTheWings According to Snopes, it is. I bloody hope so.

[quote Nottherealslimshady]@Ishihtzuknot the only thing my rottweiler has ever stalked is my dinner! 🤣[/quote]
Mine too apart from stray children in a park, they fill her up nicely 😂

I don’t know about Timothy Treadwell (Grizzly Man). I feel that in some way he might have had additional needs, and that some kind of intervention should have been staged before he was eaten by a bear.