SteveFromNY
05-30-2008, 09:13 PM
So I've been reading about how everyone is so sad that "their" buffalo have been removed because the developer is being sued because some "stupid people" got too close....
And I have to post this counter thread in defense of these "stupid people"..
I do not consider myself a stupid person really, but my first up-close-and-personal meeting with a buffalo happened in Yellowstone, at the Fishing Bridge Campground. Woke up and looked out the RV window only to see a huge bull just standing up the road a few yards from the camper. Just standing there, like I said, doing nothing. Until then I had never seen a buffalo other than in old cowboy movies, and honestly never gave a thought to their capability to hurt people. After all, he was just hanging around, all by himself. Well we all went over and started taking pictures with him. We didn't touch him (he was about the size of a mini-van), but we stood pretty close. Fortunately, the bull didn't do anything. But later I read some pamphlet or book that talked about how people are gored every year at Yellowstone by buffalo, and that single males (I think it said they've been tossed from the herd) are particularly ornery. you should saty away. Well I guess I was just stupid, and we got away lucky.
Now, this huge, undomesticated animal is taken from his home on the high plains and moved to a pen in Florida by the developer. It's a novelty, it's a tax deduction. But it's also a 1/2 ton locomotive with the ability to easily topple small trees for play (I watched them do it in Yellowstone), and it's on the other side of a fence made mostly of 1x6's. In the right mood, these animals could easily charge and demolish that fence.
They were a great novelty, and I did like looking at them, but the fact that people got hurt, stupid or not, should send the message that maybe they don't belong in close proximity to people.
And even from the first day, I never expected them there after the build out - there would be no need for the developers agricultural deduction. Moving them now is merely accelerating that activity in my mind.
If you think about a pair of scissors left on the coffee table, and the 2 year old who picks them up and runs around the house with them, who's fault is it if the child gets hurt? Certainly no one is going to blame the "stupid child", because he doesn't know better. So if someone who's never been close to a buffalo all of a sudden finds one in what looks like a cow pasture, and there is a big brown cow-looking animal in there, especially with a cute little calf, who's fault is it if they get hurt? I think if they put lions in there everyone would call the developer stupid. But another wild animal is OK? I don't get it.
And I have to post this counter thread in defense of these "stupid people"..
I do not consider myself a stupid person really, but my first up-close-and-personal meeting with a buffalo happened in Yellowstone, at the Fishing Bridge Campground. Woke up and looked out the RV window only to see a huge bull just standing up the road a few yards from the camper. Just standing there, like I said, doing nothing. Until then I had never seen a buffalo other than in old cowboy movies, and honestly never gave a thought to their capability to hurt people. After all, he was just hanging around, all by himself. Well we all went over and started taking pictures with him. We didn't touch him (he was about the size of a mini-van), but we stood pretty close. Fortunately, the bull didn't do anything. But later I read some pamphlet or book that talked about how people are gored every year at Yellowstone by buffalo, and that single males (I think it said they've been tossed from the herd) are particularly ornery. you should saty away. Well I guess I was just stupid, and we got away lucky.
Now, this huge, undomesticated animal is taken from his home on the high plains and moved to a pen in Florida by the developer. It's a novelty, it's a tax deduction. But it's also a 1/2 ton locomotive with the ability to easily topple small trees for play (I watched them do it in Yellowstone), and it's on the other side of a fence made mostly of 1x6's. In the right mood, these animals could easily charge and demolish that fence.
They were a great novelty, and I did like looking at them, but the fact that people got hurt, stupid or not, should send the message that maybe they don't belong in close proximity to people.
And even from the first day, I never expected them there after the build out - there would be no need for the developers agricultural deduction. Moving them now is merely accelerating that activity in my mind.
If you think about a pair of scissors left on the coffee table, and the 2 year old who picks them up and runs around the house with them, who's fault is it if the child gets hurt? Certainly no one is going to blame the "stupid child", because he doesn't know better. So if someone who's never been close to a buffalo all of a sudden finds one in what looks like a cow pasture, and there is a big brown cow-looking animal in there, especially with a cute little calf, who's fault is it if they get hurt? I think if they put lions in there everyone would call the developer stupid. But another wild animal is OK? I don't get it.