37 replies to this topic

[Hum]

RIVERVIEW, FL -- Authorities say an injured bobcat bit a woman who stopped to help it along U.S. 301 near Tampa.

Florida wildlife officials say the woman stopped in Riverview, Thursday morning to cover the animal with a towel. Agency spokesman Gary Morse says the bobcat then "rose up and bit her."

The Tampa Bay Times reports the animal is now is the custody of Hillsborough County Animal Rescue.

Morse says the animal will be tested because it bit someone, but it was unclear whether it will be put down.

He says people should not handle sick or injured wildlife. Instead, they should call animal experts for help.

source

[Charisma]

Bobcats are not something to be messed with
http://xkcd.com/325/
She's seen too many My Little Pony episodes and thought she could ease up to it, remove a thorn from its paw, and then it would be all sweet and lick her and cuddle, amirite?

[Hum]

I don't see what good covering the cat does.

But I'd sure keep my hands away from its mouth.

I might have waited until police/animal control arrived.

[Hell-In-A-Handbasket]

Why doesn't PETA try this, and get Rabies

[DocM]

3 Charisma, on 13 April 2012 - 14:03, said:

Bobcats are not something to be messed with

She's seen too many My Little Pony episodes and thought she could ease up to it, remove a thorn from its paw, and then it would be all sweet and lick her and cuddle, amirite?

ABSOLUTELY TRUE!!

Bobcats can be nasty to start with, and when injured any wild animal gets even worse. Then there is that a large bobcat's weight bumps up against the lower end of a mountain lions weight range (27-30 kg) and you can have a damned formidible critter.

[BillyJack]

People don't realize to leave the wild animals to survive on their own and when they help the animal it does no good. For example. If there is an injured coyote and you feel bad so you feed it then it will start coming around humans for food. Then they will euthanize the animal. Always leave the wild animal alone or call professionals.

[DocM]

Yup - people forget the other names for coyotes: prairie wolf or American jackal, as in don't f*** with them. The problem is many ignorant-of-wildlife people mistake them for stray dogs. Big mistake as coyotes will wander into suburbs, and even cities, and set up housekeeping. We hear their night time howls all the nime, and they've been filmed in downtown Detroit.

[Charisma]

BillyJack, on 13 April 2012 - 16:44, said:

People don't realize to leave the wild animals to survive on their own and when they help the animal it does no good. For example. If there is an injured coyote and you feel bad so you feed it then it will start coming around humans for food. Then they will euthanize the animal. Always leave the wild animal alone or call professionals.

And I know this is SUCH a foreign concept to some people, but in nature, sh** happens. Animals get hurt or sick and die, creatures eat one another, that's just how the world works. You can't save them all, nor should you really try too much as it's just interfering with the whole cycle. (Exceptions are animals who are endangered due to human influence, and of course we're going to do more for our pets, but those are domesticated and aren't part of that "ecosystem" as such anyway.) I know the hippie set who seems to feel that nature works like it does in Disney movies will disagree with me, but... yeah.

[BillyJack]

3 Charisma, on 13 April 2012 - 17:24, said:

And I know this is SUCH a foreign concept to some people, but in nature, sh** happens. Animals get hurt or sick and die, creatures eat one another, that's just how the world works. You can't save them all, nor should you really try too much as it's just interfering with the whole cycle. (Exceptions are animals who are endangered due to human influence, and of course we're going to do more for our pets, but those are domesticated and aren't part of that "ecosystem" as such anyway.) I know the hippie set who seems to feel that nature works like it does in Disney movies will disagree with me, but... yeah.

I agree

[BillyJack]

I have coyotes, foxes, black bears and racoons all over my neighborhood. There has never been a problem for the people or the animals. We just co-exist. Of course sometimes you read in the paper that a small dog disappeared. lol I live in a small city but it is still a city. Maybe its because I live less than eight miles away from a state park so that may be the reason for all of the animals. They all happen to be nocturnal too.

[Astra.Xtreme]

Wild animals don't know what passion and emotion is, so when it sees a human that's many times it's size coming at it, it's going to freak out and fend for it's life.
That lady is lucky the thing didn't rip her to shreds.

[matt4pack]

So cutting down their forest so we can build strip malls which forces wild animals out into populated areas where they get hit by a car on a road that cuts threw their habitat is just a part of nature? No that isn't the ecosystem or nature.

Leaving them to survive on their own would mean not interfering and causing all the problems in the first place.

[Amarok]

Tbh I'd have probably stopped and called animal control or something. Probably wouldn't have gotten close enough to get bit by it, but if I did I wouldn't blame it, it's just doing what comes natural to it.

[+Phouchg]

Astra.Xtreme, on 13 April 2012 - 21:10, said:

Wild animals don't know what passion and emotion is

They most definitely do. Unawarely. Which doesn't cancel that to the other part - seeing human as a threat - I do agree.

[AR556]

Hope she was PETA.