Indeed. Vandalism and cruelty towards animals at zoos is surely not just an Australian thing. No doubt this occurs every day in zoos across the world. I am not defending the actions of Australians, and indeed, this thread is about vandalism at Australian zoos, but I would be curious to hear about other recent incidents globally.
maybe start a new thread in the General section. But it will be depressing reading it. Vandalism, cruelty, etc are indeed world-wide. There will always be sub-humans in any population.
Really, this is just a silly statement. We don't know who did it. We don't know their age, background, mental capacity or level of intoxication. We have no motive and as far as we in the public are aware, no suspect. And yet you think you know enough to say there is little hope of rehabilitation? There's a couple of possible explanations. One is that somebody has some resentment towards Tasmania Zoo and wanted revenge for some real or imagined slight. Another, and probably more likely given that police seem to think it was a group of people, is that drugs or alcohol were involved. A less likely possibility in the case of it being several people is that mental illness was a factor. In two out of three explanations, there is a high level of culpability. In arguably all three explanations, there is nothing intrinsic to say that rehabilitation is not plausible. I don't want to down-play the significance of the crime (which unless there are big mitigating factors certainly warrants jail time), but I do think there is a difference between a spree killing of zoo animals and, say, one of people.
I think you are right: too depressing. You must have seen some pretty harrowing stuff in SE Asian zoos.
well there it's not usually deliberate cruelty. The zoo-keepers don't sit around and create new ways to torture the animals (or at least I hope not); it is more a case of just having a completely different mind-set to Westerners, not understanding the basic needs of animals in captivity, things like that. But situations like at Tasmania Zoo are deliberate acts of hate and depravity. I do agree with CGSwans but I also agree with Monty/boof. The scale of the destruction makes it almost certain a group of people committed the acts rather than one person, which implies some sort of planning/intent. Drugs/alcohol could well have been a factor. As CGSwans says, without knowing anything about the perpetrators no-one can say whether they can be "rehabilitated", but equally I feel there's a good chance they will turn out to be the sort of people who should have just been put down at birth (the sort of people who go out roaming in groups looking for individual persons to attack for no reason other than it somehow makes them feel big: cowardly scum in other words). I don't think anyone anywhere is going to have any sympathy for whatever punishment they get when caught.
I meant zoo visitors. So like visitors giving the monkeys cigarettes to smoke, or throwing bottles and stones at animals, or hitting/poking animals through cages, or drugged animals being used for tourist photos etc.
oh I see, I misunderstood what you meant. I haven't actually seen a lot of that. I've never been anywhere to my recollection where I've seen a drugged animal for instance (in fact I deliberately avoid those places). And while I have seen people spitting at/on animals, yelling at them, shaking or beating on the cage fronts, throwing all manner of food items, etc, I wouldn't say I've personally seen things that were any worse than what you see idiots doing in western zoos. For sure if I saw someone throw a bottle at an animal I'd sort them out, where-ever in the world I was. I know cretinous visitor behaviour goes on in southeast Asian zoos because quite often you see signs in the large zoos such as Zoo Negara or Dusit prominently displaying warnings not to harrass, beat, torture, etc the animals (I put one in the Zoo Negara gallery years ago but I don't now if it's still in there) but I haven't seen anything particularly vile myself. Its really just the living conditions of the animals that are uncomfortable to behold. EDIT: here's the Zoo Negara sign: http://www.zoochat.com/654/zoo-negara-sign-kl-46873/
There has been a great public response on social media, with people even mentioning that they are donating money to help the zoo.
did boof write deadshit and the site edited it but Hix wrote ******** and thats fine? Boof i know you probably encounter the same deadshits over and over, but atleast in the case of drugs there is always a CHANCEof rehabilitation. We helped one addict 8 years ago and he is now in what is considered the most trusted profession. Having said that people need to want to change and I to see little hope for the future of these scumbags
there's always a chance but I agree with monty and believe its a little chance. The vast majority of people i deal with are repeat offenders. I believe they should be punished not rehabilitated. I wasn't polite, Hix, no astricks' from me. PS. how did you get away with it Jarkari?
Jarkari wrote it as one word, you wrote it as two so the second part was stand-alone and got asterisked
My Condolences go out to the Tasmania Zoo. Such a sickening and disturbing story. How can people do such a thing and live with themselves.
