Obviously, I need to update this again, but today's update is brought on by the terrible situation that happened at the Pittsburgh Zoo. For those who don't know, the mother had placed her 2 or 3 year old child on the railing, but he slipped and fell into the African Wild Dog exhibit after bouncing out of the net that is meant to keep things from falling into the exhibit. 

As hard as it must be for the mother and I do feel bad for anyone having to bury a child, signs are there for a reason. The lawyers are the ones who are going to chase this and with the currently emotionally unstable mother, they'll easily be able to convince her to sue the zoo. More than likely, they'll be forced to put the dogs down. That not only puts a dent in the few thousand species of these wild dogs in existence, but is bound to harm the breeding efforts the zoo has been working on. Someone had mentioned using darts instead of a gun on the dogs in the comments section of the article I read; however, it takes a bit for those effects to set in. I wish our world didn't work in the way it does where people kill animals for listening to their natural instinct. This is a familiar situation for me.

While in West Virginia, one of my neighbors found an injured pit bull. The dog and I got along just fine. He came out pretty easily to let us assess the wounds and they were extremely infected. There was little we could do at that point though. I told my parents, who called the pound. Turns out the dog had been in dog fights and had attacked both a young boy and a police officer. In the few days, I was able to interact with the dog it was quite apparent that he wasn't a mean dog, he was quite honestly more scared. Every time someone made loud noises, or entered any state of emotional distress, the dog followed. He would start growling, his eyes would get dark, and he wanted to be left alone. In the few days, he had grown quite accustomed to myself and my neighbor (who's trailer he was hiding under) and all the cheese we fed him. I feel that if given time and kept in the correct environment, even after everything he had been trained to do, he could have pulled through to be a good dog. I do acknowledge the risk that any dog trained in dog fighting poses, but too this day it is still very difficult to see this dog as the violent animal the police claimed him to be. As you can imagine, they put him down without asking any questions. 

These wild dogs at the zoo don't deserve the future they are bound to have now. This incident wasn't even caused by them being trained to fight, it was simply a natural instinct for them to hunt. As they are wild animals, it's difficult to train them to eat meat the way we're used to serving it. That's why it's not unusual for owners of exotics to have to tempt their critters into eating by making the food seem more alive. My puffer fish is even an example of this, he simply won't eat unless it's moving. That's easier to re-create with the currents I have on my tank, but it can still prove a bit difficult at times. Look at snakes, some won't touch food unless you make it move to lure them to attack it. A child that fell from such heights, likely injured at the time, and I would expect a bit of blood, simply looks like and smells like dinner. Put a hunting carnivore on the scent of injured meat and very little will stop them. These are facts of life. 

Well, that is my take on this situation. I'm not trying to sway anyone's opinion, simply stating my own.



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    My name is Rachael and this is my first semester as a sophomore. Even with the inevitable issues that are bound to arise, I feel up to the challenge and ready to take on my course load this semester. I just pray that my fish agree to behave.

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