Posted on 09/13/2009 1:40:53 PM PDT by Chet 99
06:21 PM EDT on Friday, September 11, 2009
By NATALIE DICK / NewsChannel 36
E-mail Natalie: NDick@WCNC.com
MAIDEN, N.C. -- A Catawba County girl is recovering after a bizarre incident at a local petting zoo, and now her mother worries other kids could be hurt, too.
Animal Control is investigating and they've asked the State Department of Agriculture to get involved.
Nine-year-old Elizabeth Ross has always loved animals but she'll never think about them in quite the same way after what happened to her at Buffalo Beal's Animal Park in Maiden on Labor Day.
The soft spoken fourth-grader was hand feeding a zebra when it took off nearly all of her right pinkie finger.
"It actually grabbed onto my hand and took it back a little bit. My papa had to smack it a few times to get my hand back. I was really scared," she told NewsChannel 36.
"I still couldn't believe it happened. It's not something you hear every day that your daughter's finger has gotten bitten off by a zebra," explained Elizabeth's mom, Kristy Ross.
"I just assumed if they're giving me the food to feed them it will be OK. It's going to be safe," Elizabeth said.
Instead, Elizabeth will have to learn to write with just four fingers. She's also receiving a series of seven rabies shots.
The owner of the park says what happened to Elizabeth is highly unusual.
He admits two kids and one volunteer have been bitten in the last couple of years, but he insists the zoo has done nothing wrong.
That's because in North Carolina, all a zoo like Buffalo Beal's needs is a permit and a promise to care for the animals.
As for the paying public, you're basically on your own.
"I'm just concerned for other parents," a distraught Kristy Ross told us.
It's something she wished she had known sooner to better protect her daughter.
The Zebra must be a pro-ObamaCare supporter.
I didnt know the SEIU was hiring zebras now.
Biting the hand that feeds him—great analogy.
I am not sure why anyone would allow a child to pet a zebra. Zebras are wild animals. They aren’t like horses.
Even with a tame horse, you had better have your hand out flat as a pancake while feeding, or the horse may mistake that up-stretched finger for a carrot.
Exactly.
People often feed carrots to zebras and other animals at the zoo. This animal might have mistaken her finger for the same. Or perhaps not, as zebras are notoriously difficult to tame, if not impossible.
That's the reason you keep those fingers WAY out of the way when hand feeding horses, mules and zebras.
I wonder if this zoo had warnings posted at all.
OK Kids. Remember: zebras, like Obama supporters, are wild animals.
I’m assuming this means Chet wants zebras exterminated.
A Zebra is not a good choice to have at a petting zoo. They are not domesticated and are still wild animals. Some zoo official needs a big kick in the donkey.
Undomesticated animals with teeth have no business in a petting zoo! They must have some lousy lawyers at this place.
What?! No signs warning that animals bite?
Pretty good quote for a fourth grader.
Maybe they're not giving it enough food...it's real hungry.
Yup, you’re right, if it has teeth it can bite. I have been bitten by horses (and not by accident!). I’m not afraid of critters at all, but one has to respect the fact that they can hurt you and be cautious. I can’t imagine a zebra being a good petting zoo animal, I have always heard they are difficult to do anything with.
Especially since in the video...it’s the mom saying it...
While it is stupid to have a zebra—an animal with a notoriously bad attitude—in a petting zoo, people need to understand that if it has a mouth, it can bite. I work in a zoo, and you wouldn’t believe the number of people who will literally thrust their hands in front of an animal’s nose so it can “smell them”. Grown people, mind you.***
I work in customer service, and it would surprise you how dumb people can be in general. Americans seem to have a problem with thinking on their feet and being aware of their surroundings.
Had the kids up at the county fair Friday night.
Of course it had a petting zoo with all the animals, slobber and all with a hand washing station for when you were finished.
As we bought the cup of animal feed we were told to keep our hands flat. And we made sure the kids kept their hands flat.
No problems except all the kids had to wipe the slobber on my blue jeans.
Did you have a zebra, though? Zebras are not petting animals. Zebras are vicious.
Why would a Zebra be anyplace near a child. They are mean ill tempered creatures who can not be trained. I worked with them—they look cool but they are ill tempered wild animals. They may look like a horse but they are not.
Here is a story NOT about pit bulls and the chet haters/pit bull lovers just cannot resist...shame..
While I feel sorry for the child, this isn't the end of the world. Jerry Garcia had only nine fingers and became a famous guitarist. I'm pretty sure the less savory aspects of Jerry's lifestyle were not caused by having less than a full quota of fingers.
Jus’ gonna’ say, I didn’t know Zebras were registered Democrat terrorists.
I used to have a 1/4 horse I was partial to,he was great
rounding up cattle when we were ready to vacinate `em,and
turn bull calves into steers,he would try to bite me every
time I got in the saddle.
I would never try to hand feed a large animal by hand,there
are too many ways it can go wrong.
Ban pit zebras!
I had horses growing up and did not own any biters. My friend’s horse (several years ago) did reach over the fence and bite me hard. It left a bruise! (for the record I was not doing anything, I was just standing there). Afterwards my friend apologized and said, “He bites!” LOL I think she might have warned me!
But, I would always be careful around strange equines, especially.
Scott Evil: I was thinking I like animals. Maybe I’d be a vet.
Dr. Evil: An evil vet?
Scott Evil: No! Maybe like work in a petting zoo.
Dr. Evil: An evil petting zoo?
Scott Evil: You always do that!
Known what? That animals bite? Or that they chew when eating? That they have teeth?
Better scare your daughter with this before she loses a pinky. ;^)
You go Chet...now killing off Zebras and their owners rather than the glorious American pit bull is something I could get in to:
let’s see...300 Weatherby Magnum or maybe 375 H&H just to be on the safe side....might be a bit large for the owners but at least they won’t run far after being hit
in other news a cute little Shetland we had named King used to always bite me after I’d feed him...in the back...that little runt...
Fingers and carrots feel the same to a horse. Zebra’s are the same. Horses cannot see what they are eating. Horses often will grab hay out of their feeder’s arms and accidentally bite off a finger or bite an arm. They are just looking for the hay, not to harm the person. All horse feeders must have their wits about them and kids at a petting zoo are the last ones who should be feeding any horse related species.
Horses have surprisingly sharp and effective teeth. You should see the bites horses give one another. They are quite bad, and can look like a cut from a knife.
Safe hand feeding of a horse is to put your hand out flat with fingers stretched away not cupped. A horse can easily bite off fingers when persons not familiar with horses feed them by hand. It even happens to horse owners who make the mistake of not getting those fingers out of the horse’s way. A horse does not mean to bite fingers. It is looking for the food. A horse who wants to bite to harm another horse or a person, will not go for the finger, it will bite off a much bigger piece of flesh. I never let a child hand feed my horses until I instruct them on how to do it safely, and WHY it must be done that way-because the horse cannot see what you are giving it. You must flatten your hand and get those fingers out of the way.
And now for something completely different (but related to zebras):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fJGgMhc7ss
True story:
The local mall had a free petting zoo for kids which featured a camel.
I was casually observing the animals when a %$X#$!!! camel reached through the fence and chomped down on my hand.
I did *not* want to emotionally scar all those little children or impart a fear of animals so I stood there for about 10 minutes in *excruciating* pain, trying multiple was of extricating my hand from the camel’s mouth *without* punching it.
Kids were watching all of this and asking innocent questions.
“Is he kissing your hand?”
“Is he eating some food you have?” etc etc.
I did my damnedest to smile and look happy when I really wanted to break the thing’s neck.
*Finally* I wedged my other hand into the back of its jaws far enough to force it to let go.
I told the kids to ‘stay back from the fence so they wouldn’t frighten the animals’ and went for mall security.
The Demon Camel was immediately removed and taken back to its trailer, never to return.
What if it had grabbed some little 3 year old’s hand instead?
If it temporarily paralyzed *my* hand and rendered it swollen and purple for 3 days, it surely would have crushed every bone in a kid’s hand.
Whoever brought that thing to an unattended mall petting zoo was an idiot.
No camel fan am I.
Could be that the kid had eaten candy or something sweet before “petting” the zebra. We had a horse that like to have taken our daughters hand off one time. She had just been eating candy. That mare raised her up off the ground, but didn’t bite hard enough to sever anything and she (daughter) knew how to make her hand flat when giving a treat.
You have far more fortitude than me. I would have expanded the lil’ darlings’ vocabularies dramatically.
Who the h*ll thought it was a good idea to put a camel in a petting zoo? Aren’t they pretty much the textbook example for “bad-tempered?”
Well, you know I have my “issues” with the whole “bless the beasts and the children” thingy and *that* really conflicted me...LOL!
I didn’t want to influence *any* of them towards violence to animals.
*Many* years later, hubby stopped the truck on the other side of the road from a llama farm so he could go see them up close and personal.
They had a HUGE black stud llama who was vicious beyond belief.
He mistook the male llama’s fast approach to the fence as “friendliness” and you can picture me screaming across traffic, “GET AWAY FROM HIM! HE’S GONNA SPIT LLAMA BILE ON YOU!!!” repeatedly.
Sure enough, the monster reached the fence, laid back his ears and began that dreadful backwards neck flexion that usually proceeds the “spit” and hubby finally decided to heed my screams.
The llama missed him by a yard but man, did that ever make a mess on the road.
From the day of The Killer Mall Camel, I have avoided *everything* even remotely connected to that genus.
I have no idea who put that thing there.
At our ag shows, the wise farmers have the sense to put only relatively toothless things in petting zoos like piglets, calves, baby goats and lambs.
So far, I’ve not heard of any “killer lamb” incidents.
That's code for "we're ready to sue."
Camels & Lammas
Both can have “moments”.
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