SC causes death of entire family of Meerkats

[One-Fang]

A simple trench between the visitor wall and the meerkeat enclosure would do it.

A taller fence such that young children cannot reach over it (plexiglass so we can still see them).

Barbed wire or equivalent.

Meerkats in enclosed cages with windows, not open spaces.

Sorry, but there's really heaps that a zoo can do to stop people actually being able to get near certain animals. In the case of meerkats, I suspect the demand from the public is to see them in a 'reachable' situation because they're seen as cute and cuddly, like Timon. Zoos cave (or lack the funding to properly protect every animal's enclosure) and this sort of thing happens.

I'm not "holding the zoo responsible", but I do think a partial blame lies with them. In all things, I've always found that the best way to stop someone doing something you don't want them to do - is to make it impossible. Signs, rules, training, it's all completely useless against that 1/100th of the population that's simply too hellbent on getting in to pay any attention.

That said, I would not have initially said "you need more protection here". Meerkats will not kill you if you do reach in, and rabies shots are available. Who would have ever thought someone would decline the shots and kill the meerkats instead? However, hindsight is 20/20, as they say.

[karma_gypsy]

Posting signs would be a good way to keep people out, but then again, signs don't cater to the SC crowd either. Not even if they're 20 feet tall and flashing. . .

[Reyneth]

A simple trench between the visitor wall and the meerkeat enclosure would do it.

A taller fence such that young children cannot reach over it (plexiglass so we can still see them).

Barbed wire or equivalent.

Meerkats in enclosed cages with windows, not open spaces.

There were rocks. There was a barrier the kid squirmed through. Barbed wire, something people equate with prisons? There was a FOUR foot plexiglass barrier in front of the display. The brat would have to really work to reach 3 feet down - that's 36", about the length of an ADULT'S arm to reach the meerkat. How much taller should it have been?

This child was determined to do whatever it took to bother these animals, and she did. And they paid the price. Not her. The zoo has no responsibility in this - those meerkats had been there for years and nothing like this has happened. What was the zoo supposed to do? They did quite a bit of what you suggested. Enclosing the Meerkats in a cage, away from their natural habitat would be cruel.

All because one nine year old - old enough to be a rational, thinking, but obviously selfish, being - didn't care, didn't think any of the deterrants to reaching the animals applied to her.

Should the Zoo, in order to better "protect" any patron determined to touch the WILD animals, without proper supervision of parents, post guards at the corners of each exhibit? Welcome to the Zoo! One adult ticket? That will be $55! And then the "parents" would be upset that the guards dare discipline their pweciouses for still trying to get too close to the exhibits. No, thanks.

I like kids, don't get me wrong. I do despise a lot of kids (and parents) at the zoo who think that the roped-off areas don't apply to them. And this story just makes me even MADDER. I'm going to be in the Twin Cities in two weeks with a free day - I might just try to go to this Zoo now.

[kibbles]

All because one nine year old - old enough to be a rational, thinking, but obviously selfish, being - didn't care, didn't think any of the deterrants to reaching the animals applied to her.

I honestly doubt that despite the fact that the child should know better (again her parent's responsibility), but I sincerely doubt she was being selfish in wanting to pet the "cute and cuddly" animal. Really, there are nine year olds that when they see something soft and cute, often don't think rationally or think to themselves that if they pet them, that will be selfish. That doesn't automatically make the child a bad person - just a normal curious kid. The parent's have the responsibility of teaching how to behave and how to own up to one's mistakes. The mother obviously didn't in this case, so the blame is on her.

Kibbles

[Lehk]

I bet if you asked the little girl

"would you rather we give you these shots or we kill all the meercats and take apart their brains" she would pick the shots. kids are afraid of shots but they also, in general, love animals and wouldn't want one to die.

[Reyneth]

I honestly doubt that despite the fact that the child should know better (again her parent's responsibility), but I sincerely doubt she was being selfish in wanting to pet the "cute and cuddly" animal. Really, there are nine year olds that when they see something soft and cute, often don't think rationally or think to themselves that if they pet them, that will be selfish. That doesn't automatically make the child a bad person - just a normal curious kid. The parent's have the responsibility of teaching how to behave and how to own up to one's mistakes. The mother obviously didn't in this case, so the blame is on her.

Kibbles

What I meant by being selfish was that she thought that the signs and/or barriers did not apply to her - she was above all that. Maybe selfish wouldn't be a good adjective, more entitled. Yes, a lot of that is the parent's fault, but at nine years old, she can read and follow the rules of life. She chose not to do so. If she had other problems so that those were not the case, she should have been supervised the entire time. She should have been anyway obvioiusly though.

Three year olds can be taught, "No, don't pet the doggie, you have to ask if it's ok first." Five year olds stand in line in kindergarten. A nine year old should know that regardless of how "cute and cuddly," the meerkats were in the exhibit at a Zoo behind barriers for a reason - and not in the petting zoo.

I *love* Meerkat Manor on Animal Planet, so this is really getting to me. I actually just talked to my friend from MSP, and we might go to the zoo when I'm there. (I love zoos) I feel so bad for those employees.

[One-Fang]

The zoo has no responsibility in this - those meerkats had been there for years and nothing like this has happened. What was the zoo supposed to do?

But Eden Prairie mom Liz Schewe said she wasn't surprised the exhibit's barriers were bridged. She called herself an "overprotective mom" but said she has wondered about the exhibit's safety. "It's definitely given me pause in the past," Schewe said. "My 4-year-old is a monkey, and he could probably climb right over."

If she thinks her four year old could scale it, it probably was only a matter of time. So the nine year old had "to work" to get her hand bitten. Nine year olds will work hard to pet a cute fuzzy animal. Children are often unsupervised in a zoo. One plus one equals two.

[Gurndigarn]

I like kids, don't get me wrong. I do despise a lot of kids (and parents) at the zoo who think that the roped-off areas don't apply to them. And this story just makes me even MADDER. I'm going to be in the Twin Cities in two weeks with a free day - I might just try to go to this Zoo now.

If you're in the St. Paul part of the Twin Cities, consider the Como Zoo. It's about mile or two north of the capital building and another mile or so west, IIRC. Best zoo I've ever been to. It's small, so you can see it all but still have a reasonable part of the day left, but despite that, it has a nice selection of exhibits. Very nice, considering the size of the place. And it's free.

http://www.comozooconservatory.org/index.html

[Ryu]

sigh.. this breaks my heart.. i love animals!

[Reyneth]

I change my mind, "selfish" does apply to this girl.

She chose to have 5 unique and wonderfully individual animals (believe me, these guys have Personality) killed. Because she did not want to have the shots.

Granted, I tried to refuse shots at 8 when I had strep and needed antibiotics, but I was given no choice in the matter. Even though I could have had the liquid, parents overruled and I got the shot. So those parents should *not* have given her a choice in the matter - but they did. And she chose a lack of discomfort for herself over the lives of those animals. Selfish.

If they had been proven to have rabies? She would have gotten the shots anyway. So thier lives were ended for no good reason.

I remember reading about a young girl - 11 maybe - who was bitten by a wild animal (bobcat or something like that) but chose to get the shots instead of having it killed, because she didn't want that to happen, it wasn't the animal's fault. So there are some good ones out there.

And thanks Gurndigarn - my friend did suggest that Zoo also. I'm just a sucker for zoos, so we'll see how it plays out.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

The stuff I've see zoo patrons do would flat out flabbergast you. There is no such thing as an idiot proof enclosure. Idiots are willing to work very, very hard to defeat anything idiot proof. They evolve with the speed of virus. I have seen them MOVE A BARRIER to get in the way of an oncoming cherry picker truck AFTER I've said to the them, "Ma'am, please stay out of the area. The driver of that thing has a LOT of blind spots." Just wander out there like a dumb, brainless, tumbleweed.

No, they don't thing anything applies to them, if it's counter to what they want to do. I can't really blame the kid...the kid is only going to be as responsible as she is taught...and look who is doing the teaching.

[PorkChop]

"I'll go one step further, which hasn't been suggested yet. I'm thinking of poor CRH (hope I've got the right CSer there) and the puppy killing story and I'm thinking - the mother and daughter should have been made to perform the euthanising. Now, I'm not saying it should be allowed to be potentially inhumane because they're inexperienced, but that they should what CRH did - administer the final shot under supervision."

I work with animals everyday. I am very angry about this girl (who should know better) not to reach into an inclosure to touch these animals. When the meerkats was euthanized, the girl and her mother should of been present. Only a vet can administer the euthansol (the pink stuff) so the girl and mom can't give the shot. It is given through the vein.
I go through euthanizations everyday at work and is not pretty. It is heart wrenching.
Reading this article mad me so mad, words can not describe. If that stupid, idiot girl went through the rabies vaccine series, the meerkat family would of lived.
Someone else mentioned that why couldn't bloodwork be checked. Only way to test for rabies is to euthanize the animal. Decapitate it and study the brain tissue.

[ArenaBoy]

That little girl should have been given the shots. I am a huge animal lover (I adopted a greyhound from the track and will occasionally foster one when it needs a home, its fun.) You think that a little girl should know better but she chooses for those animals to die because of some lousy pain. She ruined a thing all because she had to reach her goddamn hand in the enclosement and get bit and cry over a lousy shot. Goddamn it, it makes my blood boil when I think of some of the things people do to animals for no reason at all. She should've been forced to take the shots, no intervention from the parents or her choice at all, I just hate little kids like that because of their stupidity and selfishness.

[Luna]

This story just sickens me to no end.

However, even at 9 years old, yes she should have known better - but she is still a child. It is the mother who should be punished. How long do you have to leave your child unsupervised to scale over the obstacles set up to stop you from getting into the exibit. A proper parent would have had a discussion about not touching animals before going to the zoo. A proper parent would be watching her child, and holding her hand - especially in a crowded place like a zoo - where that child could be snatched from you in a moments notice.
A proper parent would make her child have the shots so not to destroy a family of animals that didn't do anything wrong. A proper parent would give her kid an ass whooping right after she dragged her to get those shots.

The fault lies with the parent - not the child.

And I've been to zoos where they have a moat and boulders..and there were SCs trying to climb over to get "better pictures" - grown adults...in tiger pits. Barbed wire and glass all around? Zoos are trying to make the habitat as natural as possible. Bad enough they're ripped out of their world or bred in captivity for our viewing pleasure - but for stupid people's safety they should be made to feel as if they're in jail? I would never support a zoo with my money if I saw conditions like that.

[Pagan]

She got bitten, which is not painless, and she's afraid of some shots? Of course, people can't or won't understand that wild animals are just that, wild animals. This kind of thing happens here repeatedly when food get scarce up in the mountains. We have bears and mountain lions come wandering down looking for food. What happens a lot, instead of tranqing and relocating them, they are shot and killed. Then there are the coyotes that roam Corrales. Some want them all killed because they might eat their dog or take a chicken or two. Um, hello, the coyotes were there first. Personally, it's pretty cool to hear them howling some nights!