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[wombat]

I can understand why those posts sound offensive.  But we've had things happen like a visitor dropping a rock on an animal and killing it.  Even when it doesn't go that far, when you work at a place that attracts huge mobs of people, you see way more than your share of the sort of behavior that makes you despair of the future of civilization.  And unfortunately it seems to be a facet of human nature to lack respect for anything that you get for free or for cheap, so that makes it worse.  I won't go so far as to say that the more I see of people the more I like animals, but some days it's close.

[CortJstr]

I won't go so far as to say that the more I see of people the more I like animals, but some days it's close.

I'm willing to bet that if you removed the fine acheheads, dumbrellites, and other OL people you don't really "see" that it would be much much closer.

[AlohaDawg]

Well, this thread sure got really offensive really fast.

I assume I'm the one with the need for speed here....I think Wombat's point that people can't respect anything that is free is right on. I worked in a clinic where service was free and people had the nerve to COMPLAIN because they had to WAIT while people who got their first or triaged in with pressing needs were seen. And this was for VD, people! It's not like you don't need a little time to think... I was more than happy to suggest they pony up some cash at another clinic if they felt they weren't getting their money's worth.

It's the same problem in my opinion - people are no longer held to any reasonable standard for behavior and accountability and the rest us get branded elitist or nazis or whatever (racist, even!)  because we understand that everyone benefits when everyone behaves reasonably. And everyone suffers when people don't.

I don't want to live where everyone is like me. I just want to live where everyone has some kind of respect for what other people do for them. It seems like a small thing to ask.

As for Zoo-Foolery: Ask Phil Bronstein if we shouldn't respect critters just a little more than we do...

[Nabubrush]

At the zoo in Anchorage, we let the animals eat the people, making it easier to see the pretty critters.

[wombat]

At the zoo in Anchorage, we let the animals eat the people, making it easier to see the pretty critters.

It would be hard to use this solution in my building.  It takes a really, really long time for naked mole rats to eat a whole person.

[Nabubrush]

Well, no, that's true. You have to start with a larger animal. We begin with the polar bear usually. Then, when there's just scraps left, you can go to the mole rats.

[V-Adore]

Huzzah for Binky and all of his brothers!

Mildly off-topic: I went to the Bronx Zoo on Tuesday, and I can now vouch for the fact that naked mole rats are not ugly because of their nakedness. I have now seen mole rats with fur (I want to refer to them as "clothed mole rats"), and they are also a heinously ugly animal, an embarrassment to God and man.

[wombat]

Mildly off-topic: I went to the Bronx Zoo on Tuesday, and I can now vouch for the fact that naked mole rats are not ugly because of their nakedness. I have now seen mole rats with fur (I want to refer to them as "clothed mole rats"), and they are also a heinously ugly animal, an embarrassment to God and man.

Do you remember which kind of clothed mole rats they have?

We have two furry kinds called Damaraland mole rats and Palestine mole rats.  They bite like crazy.  You can pick the naked ones up, and they'll just run away when you try to clean.  But the un-naked ones are extremely illtempered and can bite really hard.  Since they spend all day digging with their teeth, they have very strong jaw muscles.

Maybe we should call them PG-rated mole rats.  No nudity and only a little bit of violence if you are careful.

[slink]

We have two furry kinds called Damaraland mole rats and Palestine mole rats.  They bite like crazy.

I'm guessing they bite though, because the Damaraland ones keep lobbing crap at them and stealing their habitat.

Man I'm going to sleep!

[V-Adore]

Do you remember which kind of clothed mole rats they have?

We have two furry kinds called Damaraland mole rats and Palestine mole rats.  They bite like crazy.  You can pick the naked ones up, and they'll just run away when you try to clean.  But the un-naked ones are extremely illtempered and can bite really hard.  Since they spend all day digging with their teeth, they have very strong jaw muscles.

Maybe we should call them PG-rated mole rats.  No nudity and only a little bit of violence if you are careful.

Unfortunately, I don't remember which kind they were, except that they were greyish. (I appear to be channeling the same Bad Customer Archetype that produces "I'm looking for a book? It was blue.") However, this sounds basically accurate -- the naked mole rats I've seen, at the Bronx zoo and elsewhere, seemed quite docile, but the two clothed ones I saw were busily gnashing away at each other with their gigantic teeth. They seemed remarkably unsocial, which was a surprise after the calm naked mole rat hive.

[wombat]

I realized I had a way to look this up.  You saw the Damaraland ones which are the bitingest.  Yeah, they bite each other all the time when they are not trying to bite me.  It's funny that you call them unsocial because technically we call them social animals - they live in groups - but I guess what that means is that's it's a really nasty kind of society.

I wonder if the Bronx has a better exhibit where you don't have to stick your hand right in with them to clean it.  If I grow up to have a permanent job as the mole rat keeper, I'll have to go take a look.

[AugustWest]

I just got back from an afternoon at our zoo.  Unfortunately, I missed our naked mole rats.  They're right next to the new gorilla exhibit and we've got a brand new baby gorilla, so we spent time there.

MAN it was packed.  It was the first nice day of the late winter (60 yesterday, 63 today).  We've been zoo members for years and go several times a year.  I have never seen it like that before.  Whew!

People weren't too bad.  My only pet peeve was the kids who would walk right between me and the exhibit I was viewing.

[wombat]

Dang, what is it about people, that even a person of such taste and style as August West prefers a baby gorilla to a small mammal exhibit.

I hate that thing about kids getting in the way.  Especially when there's something to pet.  All my life I have had no mercy for children when they were in the way of me petting something.  I do try to make up for it now by being very nice to them when I am the one who has something that they can pet.

[AugustWest]

Honest and truly, I was trying to make a point of stopping in to see them.  But it was a group dynamic thing, see.  Also, this was my first time there since the gorilla exhibit opened, so it was something of a novelty for me.  I've seen the NMR's before.

Had a good view of the Siberian Tiger pacing, pacing, pacing.  Got splashed by a sea lion.  Caught a long glimpse of the red wolf, which is rare in the daylight.  He actual stood up and stretched for a while.  Also had a moment of humor at the wolf's pen when we noticed that he had a two tennis balls molded together in bone form toy much like my dogs have.

[V-Adore]

I realized I had a way to look this up.  You saw the Damaraland ones which are the bitingest.  Yeah, they bite each other all the time when they are not trying to bite me.  It's funny that you call them unsocial because technically we call them social animals - they live in groups - but I guess what that means is that's it's a really nasty kind of society.

Two responses to this:

1) I love the adjective "bitingest."
2) I assumed that the Damaraland mole rats were social animals -- after all, I can hardly picture any mole rat charging across the plains, a fearsome and solitary predator -- but, yeah, they have a society much like middle schools have a society. (If perhaps with marginally more biting.)

I wonder if the Bronx has a better exhibit where you don't have to stick your hand right in with them to clean it.  If I grow up to have a permanent job as the mole rat keeper, I'll have to go take a look.

The mole rats were actually in separate houses -- the naked mole rats were in the World of Darkness (bats, mostly), while the clothed mole rats were in the penis House (many small mammals).