Alice Springs Reptile Centre Alice Springs Reptile Centre

Sorry Jusin, I wrote the post below before seeing yours.
I still mean what I wrote but I do understand what you are saying regarding indigenous people. There have been and still are many similar problems on the Indian Reserves regarding drugs and alchohol. There have been many suicides with the young people on some reserves and at one reserve many were taken away to schools in other areas to try and give them another veiw of life. They were sniffing glue at a very young age and then went from bad to worse.
I'm sorry if this has gone off thread but I want you to know people in Canada will understand exactly what you are saying. If the child comes from that sort of enviroment he needs help.
 
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All and all, hmmm, I wonder how the townspeople and neighbouring residents who knew the boy personally feel?
 
I guess boy was just stupid. At that age children pull legs of flies to see what happens. He just tried something bigger. What happens? Wouldn't animal protect itself? Wouldn't some adult stop me? At that time children subconsiously expect that somebody will intervene and stop them. Unfortunately, its often not so.

P.S. I agree that its a pity the boy didn't climb to crocodiles himself. ;)
 
Jurek7 said:
I guess boy was just stupid. At that age children pull legs of flies to see what happens. He just tried something bigger. What happens? Wouldn't animal protect itself? Wouldn't some adult stop me? At that time children subconsiously expect that somebody will intervene and stop them. Unfortunately, its often not so.

P.S. I agree that its a pity the boy didn't climb to crocodiles himself. ;)
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If this boy is just stupid as you say why has this shocked people like the way it has?. It would seem to point that there is a real problem here and more than just a boy doing the wrong thing
 
Chlidonias said:
the kid doesn't look Aborigine to me....
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Aboriginals aren't just restricted to have offspring with other aboriginals, many indigenous children here have caucasian inheritance and light skin. Sorry if it seems like I'm making a sterotype here or something, I'm not saying people of other ethnicities couldn't have done this it's just that this sort of thing isn't exactly an uncommon sight here as depressing as it is.

And glad you understand Sakura, this is an ongoing issue that not many people outside of Alice Springs will really know of. But yeah sorry for going a bit off topic, I really hope there will be an appropriate resolution to all this.
 
Sakura said:
I still mean what I wrote but I do understand what you are saying regarding indigenous people. There have been and still are many similar problems on the Indian Reserves regarding drugs and alchohol. There have been many suicides with the young people on some reserves and at one reserve many were taken away to schools in other areas to try and give them another veiw of life.
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I can see, how depression can sink in, there are sometimes that we feel inferior ( I'm asian not indigenous by the way), I won't try to explain what I really mean,
 
I suspected he might be indegenous but wanted conformation. I persenaly believe the parents are to bame, but what can authorities do. If an indigenous kid is removed for their own safty claims of the stolen generation are made and the media is happy to jump on the bandwagon.
 
Chlidonias said:
he climbed over the zoo's perimeter fence in the morning before the zoo was open (and presumably before any of the staff had arrived for work)

The following article goes into more detail: Australia in shock at 'killer brat' who fed zoo animals to crocodile - Scotsman.com News

the last bit by Phillip Hodson really annoys me, about how children aren't responsible for their actions because they don't know right from wrong. He's seven years old for Christ's sake! Of course he knows the difference between right and wrong!
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Seriously, is this psychotherapist disturbed himself or what. Ofcourse, we are damn responsible for all our actions. I personally do not have much of an opinion of the PSY profession, but this kid and his mother obviously require some more diligent psychotherapeutic help - on top of some form of provisional juridisdiction.

Whereas, admittedly we cannot hold kids below 16 up in court for this on a first offence, I would advocate his mother and (absentee) other parent are held accountable for his actions and should be prosecuted both for material and immaterial damages. The child himself should be given a probatory out-of-school community service sentence in his school and at the park in order to imbube some sort of educational aspect into his day-to-day behaviour.

Now, let us see if the Australian justice system is robust enough in dealing with non human crime? Speaking by police to both child and parent is clearly insufficient and if that is that police have a peculiar understanding of right and wrong in society at large ... :(
 
Interesting responses fom everybody. I too felt quite sickened by what I read. Children have to be taught right from wrong, they don't pick it up naturally and they learn from what they see/experience around them. I would hazard a guess that this child comes from a disturbed background where abuse may be happening. He is most likely to be copying what he has seen or responding to things that have happened to him. It doesn't excuse any of it.

Perhaps some restorative justice with the child and parents meeting the keepers and other people involved so they can see how upset and distressed they have been and then considering ways the child can make 'amends' might be appropriat? Don't know if it may be possible to have him and his parents doing some kind of (supervised) community service at the centre - there must be a lot of reptile poo to shovel?

If a child has emotional trauma before the age of 4 (lack of positive physical contct, positive emotional contact with other humans) it is very hard to undo because the connections that are made in the brain in those very early years don't happen and the child will need some intensive psychotherapy to try and re-establish connections. This may never happen. Children are not born psychopathic or evil. Their environment, family etc influence them and emotional/physical trauma probably goes back years/generations. The cycle needs to be broken in order for things to be different in the future. Children liek to cause pain and suffering to others (see it at school all the time, it's a power thing) and need to be taught about the consequences.

I think it was Belfast Zoo where the penguins were beaten to death BBC News | NORTHERN IRELAND | Penguin thrown to the lions a link to the article...

Anyway, let's hope lessons are learnt by all concerned and that this never happens again at this centre and that other places will also learn from this event.

Clothcat
 
Today I decided to see what my 6 yo response to tormenting animals would be. We drove by a circus tent set up so I said they probably have lions and elephants. (I doubt they had either) I said if they had lions in cages we could poke them with sticks or throw sticks at the elephants. She said "those poor animals" and was disgusted. This was the response I wanted and expected. :)

I explained that I was only seeing what she would say and was only joking, in case she thought I was serious.

I think that this kid in Alice Springs would have wanted to torment the animals and I think it is due to his parents or poor example set by his parents. My kids have seen me shoot animals and skin, gut and cut up deer and sheep but still feel empathy for animals and know right from wrong.
 
I'm a volunteer on a farm designed for people with special needs to experience the out doors both on a daily trip or staying in the apartments for a few days. We have over 20,000 able bodied and special needs visitors a year ranging from very young to seniors many severally disabled. I have never seen anyone be deliberately unkind to an animal, although there is supervision with all the groups so it is unlikely to happen. But special needs people are the most thrilled with their visit of all the visitors we have.
Children are like animals and have to be taught right from wrong at a young age regardless of their ability. As someone else said it does not come naturally. Let us hope the Authorities read this thread and the comments from many corners of the world. :)
 
Based on an a article posted before why one earth would you want to stab a crocodile seriously?!!!!
 
Zooplantman said:
The zoo was aware that local kids are a threat.
They too must bare responsibility for leaving animals at risk.
If their best strategy is to sue, after the fact, then they are not being responsible zoo professionals.
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troublesome kids will always be a threat, it doesn't matter what you do to try and prevent them they will still do what they want to do. There being two instances at this park (2008 and 2004) is hardly cause to say that the park is irresponsible in its duties to protect the animals. The park had security systems in place.
 
I think the best punishment would be to make this kid work at the park (supervised of course) until he can "learn right from wrong."

But seriousley I think he should be made to do some work around the place and I definatley don't think that the park is to blame because if anyone wanted to there isn't much stopping them getting at most animals in zoos.
 
PAT said:
I think the best punishment would be to make this kid work at the park (supervised of course) until he can "learn right from wrong."

But seriousley I think he should be made to do some work around the place .
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Good point make the boy learn appreciation of wildlife,
 
What kind of fence has this place got, that a 7 year old can get in like that?
The bottom line is; no-one (be they 7 years old or 17 years old) should be able to gain unauthorised access to any animal park that easily.
 
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