Tigers are not house cats

As an animal lover, I was dismayed to hear the story about Zanesville, Ohio.  What a terrible, preventable tragedy.  Tigers are not house cats!  Neither are lions or bears, cheatahs or monkeys.  First off, why was a guy who had been convicted of animal cruelty charges in possession of any animal?!   Second of all, exotic animals are exotic and different, sometimes cute and cuddley but they are WILD animals.  Don't expect them to behave like domesticated animals.  The fight or flight response is real and unpredictable.  And so is the prey drive.  Just because you raised it from a kitten and feed it every day, doesn't mean that if the wind blows a certain way, it's mating season, or you move like prey, that instinct isn't going to take over and you're mid-afternoon snack.  Nothing makes me angrier than seeing a story of some bear or bison or big cat being put down because some yokel tourist wanted a picture of Little Jimmy sitting on its back and the animal reacted normally.  I saw the stupidity first hand as a kid in Yellowstone.  Total idiots urging their kids closer to 1 ton bison for a better picture.  Watch Little Jimmy get gored and trampled!  Fun for the whole family!  I'm not saying you can't own and enjoy exotic animals (though I'd be hard pressed to see a truly appropriate set-up whereby the animal and the community are properly accommodated), just don't be surprised when your wild animal acts like one.

Rant 1

Can we (for just a minute) stop being so emotional?  And for another thing, why don’t we think for ourselves instead of letting celebrities and news pundits boil complex issues down to a sound bite and spoon feed it to us? First of all, celebrities are not always the most well informed, deep thinkers.  And really America, news pundits are not reporting the news; they’re selling it.  Controversy sells, not harmonious accord.  Therefore, it is in the interest of the news media to use polarizing language, to try to cast things as black or white.  How many of us have read the health bill?  I was getting my hair done a few days ago and the shop was all a buzz.  Not one person made any reference to having read the bill.  They just blindly regurgitated what they’d heard off some news program.  Several people have asked me what I think and I just tell them that when I get around to reading it, I’ll let them know.   Why be apart of spreading half truths, speculation, and flat out inaccuracies?  It doesn’t help anything and it just adds to the fear (and really, when was the last time anything good came out of fear and ignorance?  I’m looking at you Salem witch trials, Mr. McCarthy, Swine flu pandemic).  I’m taking a stand against Washington.  I refuse to be led around by the fear being peddled on both sides of the political fence (being jerked back and forth is exhausting).  So, I’ll read the thing myself and then I’ll think about it.  I won’t get all upset because if the system works the way it was designed (and I have faith our forefathers; they put some thought into this), the bill will be tested, challenged, refined, and reworked so that it works, or it will be discarded.  And besides, tomorrow we’ll be presented with something new by which we should be outraged/incensed/deeply offended. : )