Last week,a hippo escaped from St Lucia Wetlands park and made it's way to rural coast in KwaZulu Natal where it then killed a man.On Sunday,it was hunted down and killed.This has erupted a heated debate in SA.Do we as humans have the right to dictate whether animals live or not because of we're at the top of the foodchain?Animal activists are up in arms and argue that the hippo shouldn't have been killed but rehabilitated.What do you think?
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I've been a vegetarian for 41 years ... what do I know? Sad they couldn't find another way to solve the problem :frown:
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we had the same story here many years ago ..
a Hippo lost his way back to the river Nile and destroyed some farms in Toti island near Khartoum .. local inhabitants of the island dug a hole and it fell inside .. then killed .. many were angry and argued that it hadn't killed anyone
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I would have to agree with going for the rehab option. Could have shot it with a tranquiliser, transported it to where it would have needed to go and let it live... the poor thing.
It is a wild animal, so whether it killed the man out of being antagonised or not wouldn't change my opinion on it either. Hippos are known to be dangerous creatures and should be treated with the respect it deserves.
As for pets turning feral/dangerous.. I'd rather say shoot* the owners first... coz 99.9% of the time.. it's the owner's fault that the animal is like it is.
*Ok, maybe not shoot (although with some pet owners...!), but certainly punish in some way. I always feel sorry for the animal, even when they are vicious, coz I can be pretty sure it was trained (deliberate or not) to be that way.
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I don't think they have the right to kill it, animals are living creatures that have the same desire for freedom we do. You don't see people putting us in cages and letting animals walk by and point at us. They're wild beasts, and if you don't want them to escape, don't capture them in the first place.
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Is it rather common to kill these animals that come into contact with civilization?
Over here ya do hear about the occasional bear running thru town but they are always tranquilized and shipped out of town. A few times large cats will attack people but those people are in the animals environ. If the human is hurt they wont usually go after the attacker but if the human is killed they believe that since the animal has tasted/stalked humans it will probably do it again and it is usually killed.
The human sprawl is just horrid for our planet. Over here they are just building bigger and bigger plots... kinda makes it right that the industry is in such a disastrous shape now - fuck the greedy bastards!!!
p.s. Often times humans are just as bad with other humans. As a cyclist in San Francisco I was often hassled by motorists. A couple times I was very nearly run to the curb. Such idiots... there was always a light waiting for them and I quickly caught up... I would start screaming bloody murder and a huge crowd of peds would come over and they would start screaming about what the motorist did... one crowd nearly got out of hand and started towards the driver to try & tip him over... :eek: I was kinda shocked by what I started :eek: but proud at the same time... That idiot was driving a company truck and I contact the company... poor guy had called in sick he was so disturbed by what he caused, lol.
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xx - missed ya.