Cathy Weeks wrote:

I've been to that zoo many times (I have a membership, and live 30
minutes away) and I've seen the exhibit. And in fact, my husband and
stepson have both commented about *wanting* to climb in (they
restrained themselves ;-)

A) It's trivially easy to climb into the exhibit. My 4-year-old could
probably do it.
B) It is indeed clearly marked as you described.

In this case, I'd say that the parents WERE being negligent. And the
Zoo could easily and SHOULD make it safer. Even the most diligent
parents sometimes turn their back for a second, and the toddler takes
off before the parents realize it.

This wasn't a toddler. If it was a toddler I could *almost*
understand. But even with a toddler, you have to be smart about how
you let them interact, when around animals.



but you said 9 is old enough to know better, so which is it?? if 9's enough
to know better, it's the child's fault.

It's the child's fault as well, but ultimately parents are responsible
for the actions of their children so the responsibility for the
incident is on the parents.

I agree with this. However, I don't know many parents who *would* allow
it, so I wonder what was going on. Either way, I suspect some seriously
disfunctional family life is at work.

Cathy Weeks

Thanks for your input. I suspect the parents stood by and watched, as
they do in similar situations all over the US. I once stopped a kid
from poking a kitten with a stick at our humane society after listening
to the Mom say "Nathan, don't poke that kitten" 15 times. I walked
over, removed the stick from his hand and told him "Stop poking the
kitten!". It's not neuroscience, but so many parents either A.) Don't
want ot parent their children or B.) Don't care, when it comes to
these sorts of situations. It's a shame that places like zoos have to
become idiot-proof.

-L.