Lets All Wiz on the Lonely Grave of Parental Responsibility

Originally posted on 08/07/06

This week an entire family of meerkats from the Minnesota Zoo was killed (that's right, Timon is dead). Now I freely admit that the meerkats are the schmucks of the Serengeti, but these particular meerkat's deaths are a direct result of a parent or parents not doing their jobs.

It seems that a nine year old little girl was bitten by one of these animals. Now by Minnesota law, one of two things could have happened at this point. Either A) the little girl could have gotten a series of admittedly painful rabies shots, or B) animal control could have all the animals in the enclosure killed and tested for rabies. Guess which option the parents went with.

All of you who said: "kill the little bastards", give yourself a gold star and go to the head of the class. Some of you may say that you wouldn't want your child to have to go through that painful series of shots, I agree with you. That would not be my first choice either but the girl would have survived the shots. It seems the meerkats didn't fair as well as she would have.

Kids (and people in general) need to learn that actions have consequences. At 9 years old I knew that animals bite and if this kid didn't, the parents were not doing their job. Before anyone says that the zoo might have been at fault, read this:

"The girl had to work to get her hand inside the enclosure. Zoo officials said she must have crawled over a driftwood barrier, climbed up more than 3 feet of artificial rock and reached over 4 feet of Plexiglas to get her arm into the exhibit.

Because meerkats stand just a foot tall on their hind legs, she had to have dangled her hand low for an animal to bite her finger"

Two things: First, enroll this kid in a triathlon immediately. And second, beat this kid's parents to death with the biggest, heaviest parenting book you can find. What were these people doing while their little darling was practicing her poll vaulting? They certainly weren't watch their little idiot larva, were they? If there is anywhere common sense would tell you to keep a close eye on your offspring it's the zoo. I mean, there are animals in the zoo and, as previously mentioned, animals bite. That's what all those little pointy things in their mouths are for. If you spook an animal, it will bite you. This is what we call a "duh concept"!

Now some might say that I can't really talk about this because I have no kids. This is a stupid proposition. I don't have kids because I am not ready to take care of the little buggers. I have no sympathy for parents. Parenthood is a choice. No one is forced to be a parent. If you can't do the job, don't sign up! If you get knocked up accidentally, abort the thing if you can't do the job. If you are against abortion, that also is a choice and all choices have consequences both good and bad. Take some responsibility! Besides, think of all the meerkats you'll save!

A while ago, at another zoo, a woman got her arm bitten off by a tiger. The whole fucking arm! This woman fought with animal services to make sure the tiger was not put down. She had done something stupid, stuck her arm in the tiger's cage, and accepted the consequences, -1 arm. This I can respect. She didn't blame the tiger and make it suffer for her mistake. She took responsibility for her actions and that is what it's all about.

Personal responsibility is important and parental responsibility even more so. The children first learn by watching the parents. If the kids see the parent acting like irresponsible doorknobs, guess what the kids are going to grow up to be. That's right... president.

Here is the story's page:

http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/15202942.htm

Rant over... for now