SC causes death of entire family of Meerkats

[skeptic53]

a great article.

http://health.msn.com/pregnancykids/...42037&GT1=8404

This article is RIGHT ON!!!

American culture is getting downright warped... the whole entitlement thing, the lack of personal responsibility, the insane devotion to political correctness on one hand and extreme religious views on the other... BLECCH.

Hey you folks in other parts of the world: Aussies, Kiwis, Canadians... are things as nuts in your land??

[Tria]

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.

Which leads to....

Mother: How DARE you try to guilt my daughter into suffering for these stupid animals!

[Tria]

Why does that make it worse? The girl is 9 years old, what 9 year old would say that they wouldn't mind getting shots?
Kibbles

I never minded....

[Barefootgirl]

It does seem odd that the meerkats were euthanised straight away. i mean, meerkats in a zoo aren't going anywhere - how difficult would it have been for the keepers to keep the entire colony under supervision for the ten days or whatever the quarantine period is? Maybe take them off display for the quarantine period, to ensure that they are clean.

[chainedbarista]

sadly enough, nightangel, even though i don't agree with the scratch issue(requiring quarantine), laws require the ten day, due to 'inability to verify exposures after vaccination.' it sucks; i had to turn in paperwork and do quarantines on cases that realistically, didn't need to be. some were so asinine, i wanted to plant a 7w boot in the asses of those responsible for the stupidity.

cases included:

parents allowing their four year old to wander into a pack of feral dogs to 'pet' them

various rodents (they die within 24 hrs of infection)

birds (rabies affects MAMMALS...why my time was wasted with this crap, i'll never know)

cases with little or no info, such as where, a description of the animal, what the victim did after exposure (all of this is necessary for me to even process the case)

people who 'have no idea' who the animal belongs to...

denial of animal's participation

refusal to give information on vaccination (they complied once they were told the animal can be euthanized without their consent if said info is NOT supplied)

it was a nightmare; most of the ten days were done in home, making things simpler, but it wasn't in accordance with procedure. unfortunately, i was given a job to perform, but no authority to perform it as per law. it basically sucked much backside.

i digress; the whole issue of these animals being put to death because of this kid's stupidity and 'mom's' irresponsibility is ridiculous. the quarrantine should have applied, animals set in quarrantine, cleared and all is normal, with two exceptions:

a fine levied for tresspassing
lifetme ban for inability to comply with saftey issues and park rules

idiots like these two have no business being near any animals, period. i can imagine what this brat would do if she saw a babt bear in a park.

'ooh, baby...' *followed by momma bear attacking...*

[Kelly Lynne]

If some kid came into your house uninvited to attack your child, and the cops refused to file a report, I think a lawyer probably should have been called. You house essentially got broken into, and you son menaced inside his home. Your dog was defending your son and your home.

Exactly...that doesn't deserve a 10-day quarantine. That deserves a pat on the head, a "Good girl!" and a couple doggie treats. I also agree that there's no excuse for not filing a report when the kid trespasses with the intent to harm your child.

I'm sorry, once someone breaks into a house (or even walks through an open door when it's clear that they intend to do someone harm), anything done by the owner of the property, kids, or dogs should be chalked up as their just desserts. I was under the impression that you were allowed to shoot intruders into your house in self-defense...the dog should be permitted to act in self-defense or defense of her owner as well.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

If some kid came into your house uninvited to attack your child, and the cops refused to file a report, I think a lawyer probably should have been called. You house essentially got broken into, and you son menaced inside his home. Your dog was defending your son and your home.

In my case, they wanted to bring the cat in to observe her and I told them there would be a better chance of them winning a lottery. On planet Pluto. So I gave them permission to visit me as often as they liked, as long as they didnt' disturb me or the cat. I even told them what room she liked the best and left the curtains and blinds open for them. But had they started making noise about taking her with them, both she and I would have disappeared for a while. Or the cat would have mysteriously "R-U-N-O-F-T." I'll only put up with so much intrusion, especially since I was only humoring them. Really, there was no reason for it. They can't force treatment on me, so I'm not sure why bother going through the motions.

[NightAngel]

that's actually standard; even with proof of vaccination, they do a ten day quarantine to 'ensure' the animal is free of the disease.

Yep, it is.
One day, back when my Lady- Girl was still with us, a mean little kid was chasing my son. He was screaming threats and I know if he had caught him he'd have beat him up.
What happened next was so fast I couldn't do anything about it:

My son ran in the front door and slammed it in the other kids face thinking home=sanctuary.
The kid throws open the door and runs into the house screaming like a banshee- sees my son- runs at him fist drawn back.
Lady jumps in the middle barking and growling.
Kid turns and runs out of the house- pulling the door shut behind him.
Lady is too fast and makes it through the door before it shuts.
Kid is chased down hallway. Winds up with a 'wound' on the back of his leg.
I call Lady back in and she comes immediately.

I call the police to report this kid coming into MY home completely uninvited with the intent of causing physical injury to my son.

The other kids parents call the police and tell them that their poor innocent baby was "bit" by the big, mean, rabid dog that lives across the hall.

Animal control and the police show up on my doorstep about a half an hour later. Lady is taken for a 10 day observation even though I have all the paperwork to prove she's had all her shots.

I wasn't even allowed to file a complaint against the neighbor kid.

I was allowed to see the kid's "bite". It was a tiny little scratch. I said, "That looks more like a claw mark than a bite." The animal control person got huffy with me and said, "I know a bite when I see one!"

Then after I got Lady back from the 10 day observation I had to take her to the vet for a "psychological evaluation" to prove she wasn't mean-crazy-dog-from-Hell to the landlords.

The child was NEVER repremanded for what he did. In fact he was severely coddled. I would have simply been happy to have heard someone tell him, "What you did was wrong also."

[Kelly Lynne]

That's completely stupid on the mom's part. And a nine-year-old is old enough to know that you don't go petting strange animals, especially at the zoo.

The zoo should not only ban the mother and kid for life, but send them a bill for the euthanasia, and the cost of five new meerkats. Oh, and call child protective services on the mother who totally ignored her kid long enough to let her scale the barriers and stick her hand in the cage, and *then* didn't want her to have painful shots that might save her life. Because if by some strange chance, the animals had been rabid, delaying the shots until that was found out can't have been a good thing for the kid.

[chainedbarista]

that's actually standard; even with proof of vaccination, they do a ten day quarantine to 'ensure' the animal is free of the disease. i had to do this when i worked at a clinic; the ideal situation is for the animal control dept. to quarrantine the animal on site for ten days, then release/destroy, depending on findings. if the animal is a stray/wandering loose (but has an owner) and a rabies vaccination cannot be verified, in most states, the animal control dept. has the option of euthanasia without owner consent. (a strong argument for keeping up those vaccinations!!)

but that's what doesn't make sense; the animals had current vaccinations, so a quarantine should have been more than sufficient.

that woman should be fined and banned for this bit of stupidity.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Several years ago I was badly bitten by my cat. This was a cat that stayed indoors at all times. Well, long story short, she fell out of a window, freaked out, and had to be rescued by me. I ended up getting bitten and had to go to a doc-in-the box to get patched up and shot full of antibiotics. (To say I got bitten is an understatement, so that's why all the hoopla.)

Anyway, in SC, if you are bitten by an animal, it's just like a gun shot. The doctor must report it by law (had I known all the crap that awaited me, I would NEVER had gone to the doctor and instead just took my chances. I was worried about infection, NOT rabies. And I needed a tetanus shot. Not a huge deal. ).

Well, the amount of hassling I received from DHEC was un freaking believable. The were going on and on about rabies risk. The cat was outside for a couple hours, which were spent cowering under my shed. Her shots were up to date. She did not have rabies, for crying out loud. Yet, I had to hear all sorts of doomsaying and hysteria. You'd have thought I'd been mauled by a swarm of bats, a gang of roaming racoons and a staggering feral dog or two. I flat out refused to take the shots and I flat out refused to have the cat tested.

So get this. They sent a dude in a lab coat out to my place every day for a week or so to peer into my windows and make sure the cat wasn't foaming at the mouth or whatever. They did this with my permission, but still.

I wish I'd just told them a stray bit me. I am pretty sure as an adult I can refuse treatment. Then would would they done? Don't think they could've done much in a case like that.

[chainedbarista]

The 9 year old and the mother should be banned from the zoo.

let's include anything involving animals; the heck with these two, save the animals they're endangering!

yes, there is a blood test that can be done for rabies; they do this all the time when shipping pets to places like hawaii and guam to shorten quarantine time.

instead of destroying them, i'm wondering why it was necessary to destroy animals (outside of the bite) that were already vaccinated and clearly healthy. stupidity isn't a justification for destroying animals; they should have been quarrantined and observed, rather than destroyed.

stupid mother should be sterilized; not responsible enough to be a parent but responsible enough to demand that animals die for her lack of parenting skills? hell no.

[LostMyMind]

I still don't understand why the meerkats had to be killed. The family had a choice to get rabies shots or not. The zoo shouldn't be required to "test" for rabies on the meerkats because the shots were turn down.

Sounds to me, the zoo should have just told the family. Hey, it's your choice. I suggest you get that kid rabies shots. Otherwise you won't know until she starts foaming.

[gypsywitch84]

Just because someone is a kid, shouldn't excuse stupid behaivor. Being a child shouldn't get you off the hook for being stupid. When I was nine, if I had done that, shots (and I HATE shots, I broke my arm a few years ago and asked someone in the ambulence if I was going to need a shot) shots would have been the least of my worrys. My dad would probably never bring me to a zoo again.

I think the child and her "mother" (she's not a "real" mother) should have to witness the death of the cute animals. Also, the zoo should put a flyer with the "mother" and child pictures on the meercat habitat saying "due to the actions of (insert full names) the meercat habitat is currently empty. "

[BunnyJas]

After thinking a bit, I wonder if this girl was told what would happen if she didn't get the shots. If her parents were concerned about her getting some pain from needles, then I'm sure they didn't tell her that her decision caused a family of cute little Timones to be killed. Of course, what kind of "parents" would allow their 9-year old to make this decision? I hope these idiots were sent the bill for the euthanazion and another bill for setting up a new family of meerkats.

I also don't see how the zoo was at fault. They seemed to have had all the proper barriers and when children or idiots are determined they will find a way to get through them. The blame sorely rests on these idiot parents and a bit on this girl who at 9-years old should have known better.