Monday, October 5, 2009

We'll Make Great Pets

If only there could have been some earthly way to predict this tragedy:
Authorities in northeastern Pennsylvania say a woman was killed by her pet black bear as she cleaned its cage.
[...]
Officials say Walz [the owner] threw a shovelful of dog food to one side of the cage to distract the bear while she cleaned the other side. At some point the bear turned on her and attacked.

"At some point" - hmm. Maybe when the bear finished the allotment of dog food. Or maybe when he realized he was hungry for something a little more substantial. Or maybe when he felt like being a bear.

The owner reportedly kept a tiger and a lion as pets too.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

In West Virginia, there are very, very strict laws against owning black bears.

I'm surprised that PA doesn't have a similar regulation, considering both states are full of country folk and black bears.

I don't know if you've seen that old Animal Planet series "Growing Up," but one episode involved a black bear cub. Those things are moody and have very short fuses. When the cub couldn't get food fast enough, he just attacked. He wasn't big enough to do much damage, but he attacked.

YesBiscuit! said...

I actually don't watch many of the shows on Animal Planet because - well, I like animals. And it seems like a lot of shows on there portray animals being abused by humans (in one form or another).

FrogDogz said...

Last night I was stunned to come across a television show called "My Monkey Baby". It was, as you can guess, about people who are raising monkeys as baby substitutes. Really, really baby substitutes, as per the 'dad' who said that he'd "punch anyone who referred to her as a monkey - she's my DAUGHTER". This in reference to his dress clad spider monkey.

I was watching it and thinking, over and over, "this is going to end badly for someone".

Maybe not as badly as a bear, however - unless your baby is a Chimpanzee.

Anonymous said...

I knew a couple who had adopted spider monkies. Research facilities breed them and with the surplus babies they adopt them out. However, there is a very strict screening process.