The basis of all animal rights should be the Golden Rule: we should treat them as we would wish them to treat us, were any other species in our dominant position. ~Christine Stevens

by admin

Sometimes decisions we make can turn out fantastically, other times they can seem rather rash. However when faced with animals I am not sure I would be so quick to make a decision.
A woman is recovering from an attack from a Polar bear, while it sounds unusual; the strange thing about it is that she left into the bear’s domain.

The 32-year-old, who has not been named, leaped a fence and then swam more than 10 metres across the bears’ pool at Berlin Zoo. Apparently she was trying to connect with Knut, who is said to be the friendliest and most famous polar bear around.

The bear she met did not appear to be Knut and she was taken to hospital with bites on her arm, back and legs.

Apparently last year a man climbed into the enclosure as he felt lonely and wanted to be close to Knut.

It sounds like madness, it is madness but on some occasions something can make people belief that whatever they do, nothing can harm them. The harsh reality sometimes kicks in and in this case it happened to the this young woman.

Another story in 2003 saw a British woman in Spain have her arm torn off by a lioness. The woman, who was visiting the El Arca sanctuary for wild animals near Alicante with her sister, reached through the bars of the lion pen to try to pet one of the cats.

I remember reading her story, which I think she sold to one of the Sunday tabloids, she said something along the lines of “ I just wanted it to lick my fingers”. You cannot predict someone’s reasoning and I am sure if you would’ve ask her beforehand, she would not have even considered trying it.

Maybe it is temporary insanity, too much activity and energy that we build up, but something makes us lose the run of ourselves from time to time. On most occasions it can be a good thing because there is always a need to release tension.

If we acted the same way all the time, things might become pretty boring. If that were to happen, normality would be overrated.

I get no pleasure in watching programmes and clips where animals attack humans because in some way they are gaining a measure of revenge for humans doing just that to animals.

There is no doubt about it, when you step inside someone’s domain and you are not certain of your surroundings, strange things can happen.

Monday, April 13th, 2009 and is filed under Thoughts & Questions, Views on News.