Posted on 03/07/2006 11:16:50 AM PST by JZelle
RICHMOND (AP) -- Two black bears killed last month after one of them bit a child were buried this weekend at an emotional memorial service attended by 500 mourners. The bodies of the bears, euthanized to be tested for rabies after biting a 4-year-old who put his arm through the fence surrounding their 2-acre habitat, were exhumed from a landfill and cremated last week after a public outcry over their deaths intensified. "This is where they belong," said a teary Samantha Monk, 9, of Glen Allen, who joined several people in laying flowers and wreaths at the grave. "They shouldn't have been in a landfill. That's a place for trash. These bears aren't trash."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
I hear that bear taste a lot like pork.
Not just a service - an EMOTIONAL service.
Oy Vey!
I thought the dump was a bears natural habitat.
I would have been there....squalling my eyes out.
And I eat Tofu too, and I hugged my trees yesterday, after picking the spring flowers I planted around them. :)
The little tyke should watch his back, PETA payback's a b!tch.
Black bears are good at hunting children.
Black bears love to kill and eat humans.
Why would it be?
I know plenty of people who go around "worrying" about animals every day. It can be a real fixation for them. I love animals, love bears for that matter, but people will get angry over these bears and not give a damn if we abandon the Iraqis to Al Queda.
Did we get bear-skin rugs outta the deal?
Interesting response this time around.
These bears should have never been put down. They didn't break out of the enclosure etc. The parents need to be put down and the kids confined.
All living creatures could have 'celebrated' the bears who
preyed on human beings lives...by eating them...
PETA is a bunch of syrup swilling squirrel worshipers.
I'm angry at the parents of the child who let it get that close. They need to be ruled as unfit parents.
Squirrels are for lightweights...
I have Mrs. Raccoon and Mr. Possum as regular evening company ;)
Some people seem to find it easier to attribute human qualities to animals than unborn children, and insist that it's enlightenment.
I remember the original thread on this. A lot of people were wondering how such a young child got so close to an enclosure. The parents had a choice of having the child tested, or the bears killed. They chose the latter.
I don't really know the true story, but there was a lot of speculation it was a double fence, so how did a 4 year old get in there? Was he told to pose with the bear?
Is this from the Onion? Scrappleface?
Nope, not a sign of the end times. People have honored animals for years by having "funerals" and memorial services for their beloved pets. The deaths of these two bears is certainly a sad story and I have no problem with people paying tribute to them.
Why is this keyworded to the baglist?
I pass by road-kill everyday and they don't get an emotional memorial service attended by 500 mourners. They just get run over again and again until they finally dry up and blow away or get rolled onto the shoulder.
Hopefully, parents protect them from bears. Sounds the parents were pretty stupid in this case. Natural selection?
People in general are pretty dumb when it comes to wildlife.
Yes, the bear looks fluffy and cute and just like your teddy bear, and the bear cubs are even cuter, but I would recommend not petting them.
Sad that the animal has to suffer the humans stupidity.
These bears should have never been put down. They didn't break out of the enclosure etc. The parents need to be put down and the kids confined.
Old school, rural life dictates that when a animal bites a child, the animal is destroyed, no questions asked.....makes perfect sense to me.
Funerals for euthanized bears, but fetuses at abortion clinics are thrown in the trash.
I agree, it's a shame that in this case the bears got in trouble because a kid reached in where he shouldn't have. But these things happen and you had to protect the kid's life, even if he was out of line.
Well, the good thing is that they are a lesser species in terms of cognitive awareness, plus the fact that once you are a dead bear, you have no consciousness so the bears are none the worse off.
Obviously, we kill the bears and test them for rabies rather than subject a small child to a painful series of shots.
Last, a zoo should be designed so that a 4-year-old can't reach through the bars and touch or be touched by one of North America's largest predators.
The child could have taken a series of rabies shots. but the parents insisted that the bears be killed instead. They were not watching the child and don't care about any life. They need to have this child removed from their home.
Old school?
What happened to the rule you don't kick a sleeping dog?
Don't put you hand in the cage if don't want to get bit?
Sorry...the bears were not the responsible parties here.
Well you could at least wave every once and a while, I get lonely.
I can Bearly keep the tears from flowing.:)
There appear to be at least two XXXXXXs on this site who would further hurt a four-year-old child as punishment for getting injured.
LOL! How true.
And some humans act like animals. But that is being discussed in another post.
There is only one parent. She turned her head for a moment and the kid dashed to a place where a huge predator was able to bite the hand he put through a fence. The boy is only 4.
"Why is this keyworded to the baglist?"
Not my keyword, someone else must've added it.
You'll get the big wave next time I'm passin' by. Stay hydrated and don't dry up!
Could have been an accident, then.
Although, I am skeptical.
BTW, yes I am a parent and understand how kids can be.
That's a bit strong. The rabies shots do have side effects, whereas the bears can be tested for rabies, but only by killing them. I think the parents made the right decision for their child - after the fact. They definitely were negligent and caused this whole series of events. Maybe they should have to replace the bears. (I mean with new bears).
This story is getting a little curiouser everyday. Apparently the mother of the child told one story at the hospital and another story after she hired a big-time (and cheesy) local criminal defense lawyer. To this date she has not been charged...however she is alleged to have told staff at St Mary's hospital (where she took the child) that she couldn't understand how this had happened as they have been going to Maymont to feed the bears for several years.
> So do we have an animal caste system then?
In a sense. Bears are *bigger* than your average roadkill. And these bears were already in captivity, thus they were the *responsibility* of people... people who not only let them down, but let them down and then put them down because the humans screwed up.
It's sorta the difference between not paying much attention to the sheep my neighbors raise, knowing that many (most? All?) of them will be turned into fluff and food and not being the slightest bit upset about that... and hypothetically becoming quite upset at finding that some other neighbor's pet sheep has been beaten to death by some drunken punks.
It's not just the fact that a critter has died, but *why*.
The FDA has approved several injectable products that are effective in preventing rabies in people who have been exposed to the virus. This post-exposure treatment consists of one injection of proteins that fight the infection (rabies immune globulin) and five injections of rabies vaccine over a 28-day period.
Yes, he should have gone through the series. And note there was a fence, before the fence. She looked away for a minute? Perhaps another freeper can find the original story which also indicated she didn't seek attention for hours. The whole story isn't here.
And why not? They ARE, after all, members of the PIG family.
Trick is to quickly strip off the hide and fat as the first part of dressing out the bear. And slow cooking.
And why not? They ARE, after all, members of the PIG family.
Older rabies vaccines required painful, daily injections in the abdomen for up to three weeks, and they could produce severe side effects, says Levis. Today's rabies vaccines require fewer injections, are given in the arm, and have few serious side effects.
"Black bears are good at hunting children.
Black bears love to kill and eat humans."
I suggest reducing your consumption of halucinagens or produce documentation showing the number of humans/children killed by Black bears over the last 10 years.
Sounds like she sent the kid to feed the bear an apple. I think the officials did the right thing, but I hope they send the stupid woman a bill.
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