Innocent Bears Killed at Park
March 1st, 2006
Posted by
Travoli in
General Comments
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This is just messed up. A kid climbed a 4-foot wooden fence into a restricted area and approached the 10-foot chain-link fence that surrounds the bears at Marymont Park. Wouldn’t you know, he was bitten by the bears, who were probably trying to protect their home against the invader. The kid didn’t even need stiches, he was just given antibiotics. It wasn’t clear which bear bit the child, so both were euthanized by lethal injection. The decision was made because even though bears are low-risk for rabies, it is possible that the child would be infected. The only existing test for rabies can be administered on a dead animal. So they say it was a public health decision.
"Another option would have been to administer the rabies treatment to the child." "Whether the child received treatment or not, we felt from a public-health standpoint we had to know whether either bear had rabies," said Shannon Nicole Marshall, spokeswoman for the state Department of Health. "Our ultimate responsibility is to protect public health." This is just absurd. Way to go killing innocent animals when alternatives are available, DoH. I’m glad I am not the only one that feels this way. A poll on the page shows 95% believing that killing the bears was a bad decision. 1000 comments on the story later, they closed public feedback on the issue. |
