SC causes death of entire family of Meerkats

[skeptic53]

Dude, who the heck likes shots, anyway?

I should have made it more clear... I didn't mean to imply that anyone should like shots. I just meant that the intense fear that some people have is not something you can intellectually convince them out of very easily. Especially a kid. Therefore, the mom should have said "No choice, you're getting the shots".

[MadMike]

(Never had rabies shots) As I understand, rabies shots are shot into the belly (not the arm). Which makes the prick is painful. And the meds suppose to have a nasty effect on ya for a few hours.

Actually, they don't do it that way anymore. I posted about my own experience earlier in this thread. It also doesn't require nearly as many as it used to when they still did it in the belly.

I had to get six to start out with, one of which was a tetanus shot. The number of shots required initially has to do with how much you weigh, so a 9-year-old probably would have only need half as many as I did. For me, they did one in each arm, one in each leg, and one in each butt cheek.

Then I had to come back a few times after that for a follow-up shot, which they simply did in the arm.

To answer One-Fang's question: The tetanus shot was the worst of the bunch. The rest of them hurt a lot less.

[imany]

Dude, who the heck likes shots, anyway? That mom is retarded. I wonder how that kid dealt with all the shots you have to get when you're little, anyway. But, anyway, once upon a time, I was also a stupid kid who ignored the barriers around a zoo animal.

I was 9 or so and had gone on vacation with my mom to Taiwan, and we went with some aunties and cousins to this little amusement park type thing that also had a zoo. Well, this zoo had a monkey. It had a red face and gray fur, and it was in a cage. The cage was really small for a monkey to live in... if I'd been that monkey, I guess I would have been pretty pissed, too. Well, anyway, this cage was behind this fence, but there was a gap in the fence, quite big enough for 9-year-old me to slip through. I was thinking I could shake hands with the monkey and be friends with it, you know. BUT NO. It reached out, and scratched me, IN THE EYE! I started screaming and everything, and the next thing I know I'm being carted off to the ER. They didn't even ask me if I wanted the shot. The nurse just told me to pull my pants down and jabbed me in my very tender butt! Yeah... and then I had to wear an eyepatch for a week.

Anyway, moral of the story... wild animals are for looking, not for touching!

[skeptic53]

Fear of needles is not rational, just like most other intense fears (flying, snakes, spiders, etc etc). Most shots, including the aftermath aching, are less painful than bruises from playing soccer or basketball. Most people, including kids, know this intellectually but they still fear the shot.

I've known people with lots of tattoos who refuse to have their blood drawn!! Almost all kids, and many adults, hate the *thought* of shots. They have to be coerced or forced by psychology, guilt, or actual physical force into getting shots.

The SC in this terrible story is the mother, who never taught her daughter to follow rules, and who acquiesced to her daughter's natural dislike of shots.

The secondary SC in this story is whatever government entity requires euthanizing and examining the animal, rather than quarantine. Animals in zoos are confined and monitored every day, what were the chances the meerkats had rabies? About the same as someone getting hit by a meteor in the parking lot.

This slavish adherence to bureaucracy is in the same category as schools that have "zero tolerance for drugs" and that will suspend kids for using an asthma inhaler, or for taking Midol for cramps. Lunacy, sheer mind-numbing lunacy.

[LostMyMind]

Someone please tell me rabies shots are painful for more than the prick.

(Never had rabies shots) As I understand, rabies shots are shot into the belly (not the arm). Which makes the prick is painful. And the meds suppose to have a nasty effect on ya for a few hours.

So yes, rabies shots are not fun to have. But it's a great lesson to learn for playing with wild animals. 99% of animals in the zoo are tamed but not domesticated, they're still wild.

**edit

I looked it up; it's 5 shots to the upper arm. It's been a while, since I've bother with rabies shots information

[batmoody]

I'm not sure, but I think you could actually go to hell for something like that......

[One-Fang]

As for the girl not wanting the shots because of the pain, there are solutions to that.

I assumed that the pain is more like a tetanus shot. It's not the needle going in that's the problem, it's the resulting pain over the next couple of hours in that part of the body.

I never for a moment thought it was just needle pain. Heck, if I did, I just couldn't cope. It's bad enough they want to avoid a few hours of pain, but a couple of pricks? I'd just fall down numb, completely unable to cope with the entitlement.

Someone please tell me rabies shots are painful for more than the prick.

(Oops, I got Cominatcha and CRH mixed up in the puppy story. I'm sure they'll both forgive me. )

[Pagan]

I still don't understand how she was able to get that close to the meerkats without a parent noticing.

Probably because she was nowhere near the kid. A lot of "parents" (and I use that term loosely) see the zoo, the mall, our store as a free baby-sitting place where they can let the child wander and we're supposed to watch them. I can't tell you how many times I've been at the mall or Wally World and seen a toddler roaming with no parents in sight! It's not because the kid got away from them (like they're wont to do occasionally), but because they seemingly don't care to notice. And then they wonder why/how kids get snatched!

[AFpheonix]

Aly- You're just talking about plain old lidocaine cream. It's been out for ages, and it works well for that.

Me, I just turn my head away, so I can't see what they're doing, and it's all good.

When I dose my horses, I'll either pinch the area really well so they can't feel the needle go in, or I'll pat it firmy a few times and pop the needle in. Works pretty well in both cases.

[Phone Jockey]

If she has rabies she'll have to have those shots anyway. What a bunch of losers.

[aly7123]

I can't believe that someone would let their child act this way in a place like a zoo. That mother needed to sit her child down and explain how those animals are wild and should not be petted before they even entered the zoo. Even though I don't have any children, I do have a 10 year old stepsister and I take her a lot of places, including zoos. I never let her out of my site and I always tell her how I expect her to behave. If she does anything that could endanger herself or others, we immediately leave the place and my stepfather is told about it. If she had done anything like this girl did, she would have been taken right to the hospital and given those shots, no questions asked. Then she would have been punished for her stupidity. Of course, I would never take my eyes off her long enough for her to be able to get that close to an animal.

As for the girl not wanting the shots because of the pain, there are solutions to that. I am 24 years old, but still terrified of shots. I would give the doctors such a hard time whenever I had to get a shot. However, a few years ago, they came out with this cream (I can't remember the name) that you put on your arm (or wherever you have to get a shot) an hour before the shot and it numbs the area enough that you can't even feel the shot. It wasn't that expensive and I think it was covered by insurance anyway. I am someone who is deathly afraid of shots but this helped me get them no problem. Sometimes you feel slight pressure but no pain at all. There was no reason that the girl's mother could not have gotten some of this for her daughter if she was so afraid of the shots. It would have been a small price to pay in order to save those meerkats' lives and then she wouldn't have to worry about her daughter feeling all that pain. And I'm sure the doctor would have told the mother about this cream if she had told him that her daughter was too afraid of the pain of the shots. But then again, maybe the mother still would have said no anyway.

It's amazing how inconsiderate some people can be.

[COMINATCHA]

"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'm pretty sure that's my story you are talking about


This was brought up by a couple of people already, but I wonder whether the girl was told that they would be killed because of what she did? I doubt it, as the parents seem like the type who want to wrap their kid up in bubble wrap, so the precious little thing will never have to be in any kind of pain. Pain is a part of life, and as everyone has been saying, she should have had the shots and deal with it. Those little creatures suffered the worst pain of death, and then there is the heartache and sadness of all the people who liked the meerkats. I nearly cried, it made me that upset

[Tito]

Too bad it wasn't a king cobra she tried to touch. I've just read this thread, what a selfish cow that girl was? My parents would have forced me to take the shots and made me write a letter of apology to the zoo, too.

Same with mine had I done anything like that! Times have sure changed. Alot of parents these days think that their precious little angels can do no wrong.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Too bad it wasn't a king cobra she tried to touch. I've just read this thread, what a selfish cow that girl was? My parents would have forced me to take the shots and made me write a letter of apology to the zoo, too.

[varmintjane]

Elegantly logical and a fair start. Better than all this beating I'm sorry to hear a number you reporting you'd get, whether you actually would or not. But our enthusiastic response to the article about overprotection doesn't mean we have to go back to hitting--let's invent something new.


I haven't even resolved my moral stance on the most naturalistic of zoos-good for you and the other(s?) who commented on wanting a family-friendly atmosphere..

A "beating" isn't necessarily as awful as it sounds and for some kids, it's the only thing that works. Getting a swat on the butt is entirely different from being beaten with an extension cord, y'know.

There's a drive-through zoo in South Dakota near Rapid City called Bear Country. They have the grizzly bears, mountain lions and buffalo in a separate enclosure away from the other animals/cars, but otherwise the brown and black bears, wolves, elk and mountain goats roam around freely. They make you keep your windows rolled up and you can't leave your vehicle, but when you pay admission, they give you a paper saying that by paying you accept that the zoo has no liability if your vehicle or your person gets damaged (or eaten). We had our windows down for the elk and mountain goats, but once we got to the bear area we rolled them up. Towards the end one of the bears began chewing on the front of the car, but no damage was done except possibly my pants People followed the rules pretty well and I didn't see anyone dangling their kids out of the car window or anything.

Even in the baby animal area, I didn't see any kids trying to get into the enclosures or dangling their hands inside, so it's probably just a matter of upbringing and paying attention to your kid. I still don't understand how she was able to get that close to the meerkats without a parent noticing.