whence personal responsibility?

[cellio]

A story in today's paper reported that in Richmond VA, in a city park with fenced areas for animals, the park-keepers killed two black bears because one of them bit a child and they had to find out if there was a threat of rabies. (The only test for rabies in an animal kills the animal.) These bears have been in that park for years, and when the news broke (days after the deed was done), people in the community were outraged.

The child, four years old and accompanied by his mother, bypassed one four-foot-high barrier and then put his hand through a larger chain-link fence. The article didn't say, but I assume there were plenty of "keep away from the bears" signs too, in case two fences didn't make that point. The child got bitten (not badly enough to require stitches). Mom couldn't identify the biting bear, so both of the bears in that pen were killed.

Rabies is an unpleasant disease, but it is treatable. The treatment is painful, but many people have to undergo it because they have no choice. Sometimes you do something stupid and have to suffer the consequences; sometimes you're just in the wrong place at the wrong time and, yet, you still have to suffer the consequences. Life isn't fair, and sometimes no one is at fault.

Accidents happen, and the kid here is not to blame. For all we know, neither is the mother -- there are conflicting reports about whether she helped him climb the first barrier or looked away for a moment and he did it on his own. But that doesn't matter (except for settling the tort); even if this was completely an accident, a fluke, people have to accept some personal responsibility. It appears that someone made a decision to test the bears instead of treating the kid just in case; I think that decision was wrong.

There was clearly no fault on the part of the park or the bears themselves, so the child's discomfort is not adequate reason for killing the bears. The child, and the mother, could have gotten a valuable lesson about personal responsibility here, but they didn't. It probably didn't even occur to the parents, because we increasingly live in a world where the meme is "protection over everything, and when that doesn't work find someone to take it out on". But that doesn't help kids grow up into responsible adults, and you can't child-proof (and idiot-proof) the world anyway.

We are becoming, and raising, a nation of spoiled brats, who think that if they're unhappy, there must be someone to punish -- as if that makes anything any better. Punishment should be reserved for willful acts (including negligence). When there is clearly no fault, we need to minimize the overall damage, not our personal damage.

By the way, the bears tested negative.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

So are you done yet? You don't get to spank someone else's kid, even if you really want to.

[anniemal.livejournal.com]

The other day in the grocery store a child was standing on the child seat of a cart and screaming itself silly. I walked up to it and told it that if it fell out of the cart and split its head open like a melon, it would hurt a lot, and I wouldn't take it to the emergency room. Mom, who hadn't been trying to get the thing to sit down and shut up, just gawped on. It sat down and shut up.

I will spank anyone who needs it.

[cellio]

(I usually don't feed the trolls, myself, but feel free.)

I realize that you're using the word "spank" loosely. I'll chastise a kid (and a parent for that matter) when needed, too, but I will never lay a hand on someone else's kid unless there is imminent risk of very serious damage to the kid or less-serious damage to anyone else. Some parents are wacky about such things, thinking that your push out of harm's way was spanking or the like, and I don't need the legal hassles.

[anniemal.livejournal.com]

Yes, I was using "spank" figuratively. I have a lethal tongue and a fair repertoire of facial expressions to go with it.

[(Anonymous)]

More constructive things to do:

Send a donation to the zoo.

Write to your congresscritter about tort reform.

Spend some time teaching or raising kids.

Stop reading the stupid people stories in the media.

Don't try to teach a pig to sing, it wastes your time and annoys the pig.