[Jack Hammer]

There are more and more of these characters around these days, suffering from Walt Disney Syndrome.

They think that if animals “are just understood and loved” they’ll be friendly.

Often they come to a premature demise.

There was that Australian guy who loved crocodiles, who was stung to death by a ray; and, of course, the bear guy who got eaten (along with his girlfriend) up in Alaska.

The latest thing is swimming with Great White Sharks; how long before one of them becomes a snack for a fish?

People used to know better, but now they seem to think that, “Hey, if I just ‘project’ friendliness, the wild animals will rspond in kind.”

Crazy.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

I was just commenting on that above.

Good name — “Walt Disney Syndrome.”

The cute cuddly panda on yogurt cups (starting about 1970) have twisted people’s thinking about the danger of wild animals, as well as their need to “care” for them.

[PowderMonkey]

"Walt Disney Syndrome."

Yup. An apt description. I had to learn the hard way that wild means wild. Such critters don't want to play with you, and they don't make good pets. During my time in Nigeria, I was talking with a local in a small compound one day when suddenly a great commotion broke out. 20 - 30 men had formed a large circle out on the roadway, and were beating the snot out of a huge snake. Yelling and screaming, dust and dirt, sjamboks and knobkerries flying everywhere. I asked the local "good snake or bad?" (venemous or no?). He frowned and responded "no snake good snake!" Good enough for me.