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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Shark Attack

525 replies

JayAlfredPrufrock · 09/06/2023 17:46

Nice to see that the shark that killed a swimmer in Egypt was caught and beaten to death on the beach.

<Slow handclap>

OP posts:
troubg · 09/06/2023 20:29

@baloosbaloos there are quirks though like this thread. The benefit cheats one use to throw me because it's always "mind your own business", "stay out of it", "don't be so nosy, which is the exact opposite of the spirit of MNs when it's all about poking your nose in 🤣🤣

FoodCentre · 09/06/2023 20:30

UndercoverCop · 09/06/2023 20:22

Also, DH did once punch a seagull that attacked me while I was eating a pasty (drew blood cut my head quite badly), I thought it was to stop it attacking me again but it was to protect his own pasty

What😂😂

UndercoverCop · 09/06/2023 20:30

@troubg 😁 to be fair we were in Cornwall and the pasties were delicious, and I know because he told me immediately after that that was his motivation, when I got a bit swoony about him rescuing me from the giant hungry bird

ClaraThePigeon · 09/06/2023 20:30

If we started having sharks in our seas here

What do you mean started?

Aslanplustwo · 09/06/2023 20:31

It is very different to putting down a dangerous dog - I've not heard of one being stoned and kicked to death. Also very different to eating meat, once again the animals are not killed in that awful way. I live in a part of the world where there are shark attacks (in a nearby country) and they seem to manage without resorting to blatant cruelty.

PoeAFighterAResistanceFighter · 09/06/2023 20:31

ClaraThePigeon · 09/06/2023 20:30

If we started having sharks in our seas here

What do you mean started?

Basking sharks don't eat people.
And great whites don't come anywhere close enough for it to be an issue.

nocoolnamesleft · 09/06/2023 20:32

Honestly, it feels a bit racist to be condemning people in a comparatively poor North African country for acting to protect their livelihoods. Tourism is vital life blood for so many people in Egypt.

PoeAFighterAResistanceFighter · 09/06/2023 20:32

the animals are not killed in that awful way.

Oh sweet summer child.

FoodCentre · 09/06/2023 20:33

baloosbaloos · 09/06/2023 20:23

@FoodCentre I’m not “outraged”. I think it’s fucking deranged. Just absolutely off-the-planet wrongheaded. I’m fascinated! I simply can’t imagine how so many people are sincerely arriving at such a naive, perfectionist stance! 😂 Like yes, general shark conservation is a great idea, but one that’s fucking eaten someone??? What genius PR angle do the conservationists on this thread think they’ve found here???

Musing on a tangent here, but I’m also very interested to know (but not interested enough to e.g. look at user names to find out) whether this thread has attracted a very different subset of mumsnet users to the average. I tend to associate the general mood of mumsnet with a sort of diamond-hard, mean-spirited selfishness - why should you answer the door? Why should you watch people’s kids? Why should you give your friend a lift? Why should you feed your guests? Everyone is a cf! etc - and the position “it is very wicked to kill a dangerous predatory animal with a taste for human flesh” seems so diametrically opposed to that…! Fascinating. The anthropology of the internet never disappoints.

You can't grasp why people have strong reactions to a shark being killed? That says a lot about you, even if you think it was justified.

I didn't read the rest, I'm afraid.

PoeAFighterAResistanceFighter · 09/06/2023 20:33

nocoolnamesleft · 09/06/2023 20:32

Honestly, it feels a bit racist to be condemning people in a comparatively poor North African country for acting to protect their livelihoods. Tourism is vital life blood for so many people in Egypt.

The whole vibe of this thread has massive racist whiffs.

troubg · 09/06/2023 20:33

The poster obviously means dangerous sharks eg bull, tiger & great white. There isn't any reports of these sharks.

baloosbaloos · 09/06/2023 20:33

@nocoolnamesleft Yes this exactly

Letitrow · 09/06/2023 20:33

ClaraThePigeon · 09/06/2023 20:30

If we started having sharks in our seas here

What do you mean started?

Sharks that kill people.

Nongatron · 09/06/2023 20:35

Poor shark

ClaraThePigeon · 09/06/2023 20:35

Basking sharks don't eat people.
And great whites don't come anywhere close enough for it to be an issue.

We have a good number of species of sharks in the U,K though. There's no started with having sharks. We don't tend to have shark attacks though that's true, though there was a rare incident where a woman in Cornwall was bitten by a blue shark last year but that's an exception.

RunningUpThatMill · 09/06/2023 20:35

nocoolnamesleft · 09/06/2023 20:32

Honestly, it feels a bit racist to be condemning people in a comparatively poor North African country for acting to protect their livelihoods. Tourism is vital life blood for so many people in Egypt.

It isn't racist to suggest that animal's should be treated with respect all over the world. I abhor the Yulin meat festival, but I'm not forming my opinion on race. I'm forming it on the fact that these people are humans, feel pain and suffering, and go out of their way to inflict unnecessary cruelty in sentient animals - ones that feel pain and suffering like us.

troubg · 09/06/2023 20:35

@Itisyourturntowashthebath killer whales are fascinating

baloosbaloos · 09/06/2023 20:36

@UndercoverCop friend of mine once drunkenly picked a seagull up to give it a kiss, it opened a gash up in his face that needed six stitches and nearly had his eye out. Now that’s a case where I’m happy to admit he should have minded his own business and stayed in his own territory!

Letitrow · 09/06/2023 20:37

Aslanplustwo · 09/06/2023 20:31

It is very different to putting down a dangerous dog - I've not heard of one being stoned and kicked to death. Also very different to eating meat, once again the animals are not killed in that awful way. I live in a part of the world where there are shark attacks (in a nearby country) and they seem to manage without resorting to blatant cruelty.

Many animals are kept in awful, cruel conditions and needlessly killed here in this country for the meat and animal products industry. How is being crushed to death or gassed any better than this?

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/02/uk-retailers-blocking-moves-to-end-the-killing-of-day-old-male-chicks

UK retailers blocking moves to end the killing of day-old male chicks

While France and Germany have introduced bans, Britain continues to slaughter 29 million unwanted chicks every year

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/02/uk-retailers-blocking-moves-to-end-the-killing-of-day-old-male-chicks

PoeAFighterAResistanceFighter · 09/06/2023 20:37

RunningUpThatMill · 09/06/2023 20:35

It isn't racist to suggest that animal's should be treated with respect all over the world. I abhor the Yulin meat festival, but I'm not forming my opinion on race. I'm forming it on the fact that these people are humans, feel pain and suffering, and go out of their way to inflict unnecessary cruelty in sentient animals - ones that feel pain and suffering like us.

Yeah because animals here are cuddled to death to soft jazz so people can have bacon sarnies.

NeverDropYourMooncup · 09/06/2023 20:37

Letitrow · 09/06/2023 20:27

Very true! I suspect as people can say ah yes it's very bad poor shark without it actually affecting their lives or them having to do anything beyond typing it. If we started having sharks in our seas here I doubt people would say well no one should ever go in, well tough if you enter the water it's a risk you take, or find it fine to just let it go and get on with its business. As is its not really a real consideration for us but more an abstract chance to care about animal cruelty when I suspect most happily eat meat and wear animal products.

As climate change progresses, the likelihood of larger sharks being seen near shore in the UK increases (nobody ever seems to think of the ones already nearby such as Porbeagles, Blue Sharks or cases of Smooth hammerheads, Frilled Sharks, Shortfin Mako, or the types that usually show up in the chip shop under euphemistic names). There's no actual reason why Great Whites shouldn't already be here, just quietly getting on with their seal eating business unmolested due to the water being too bloody cold for humans 99% of the year.

Just stay out of the water and you won't get eaten by one.

ClaraThePigeon · 09/06/2023 20:37

Honestly, it feels a bit racist to be condemning people in a comparatively poor North African country for acting to protect their livelihoods. Tourism is vital life blood for so many people in Egypt.

True but that same tourism is what's responsible for the increasing number of shark attacks so perhaps the tour guides and tourists themselves should be looking at banning/stopping/boycotting shark feeding sessions and promote alternatives to protect everyone's lives and livelihoods(As well as the sharks)

Datafan55 · 09/06/2023 20:37

Daffodilmorning · 09/06/2023 19:18

I don’t think this is anywhere as simplistic as a revenge attack on an animal. Egypt relies on tourism. If shark attacks become more common, people will stop spending money visiting.

Without the tourism industry people will lose their jobs and struggle to provide for their families’.

Yes, I’m sad that the shark was killed…. But my income, and my country’s wider economy, doesn’t rely on tourism. It’s easy to have morals about things that don’t directly affect you.

Although, as PPs have said, I too have always quite fancied going to Egypt, however will always remember this incident and be put off.

troubg · 09/06/2023 20:38

@UndercoverCop 🤣