PILOT SPIN
Spin Zone => Spin Zone => Topic started by: Rush on November 12, 2017, 09:57:11 AM
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Here is a long but interesting story:
https://www.gq.com/story/terry-thompson-ohio-zoo-massacre-chris-heath-gq-february-2012
It's aviation related because the guy was a PPL.
TLDR version:
Eccentric exotic animal owner frees around 50 animals (lions, tigers, bears) and then commits suicide by shooting himself in the head after smearing himself with chicken blood to encourage the cats to eat his body.
The animals start roaming the neighborhood and need to be killed.
The man was a Vietnam vet who was well liked by friends but seemed to have issues after coming home from the war.
He had recently served a year in prison for illegal possession of unregistered firearms. He had had run ins with the law over animal complaints and not wearing a seatbelt but apparently never hurt a person (in civilian life).
He had a long marriage with a woman who shared his love for the animals but since he went to prison his wife must have had an affair and was making plans to leave him.
This incident led to Ohio passing a law restricting private ownership of exotic animals.
I'm interested in armchair quarterback opinions. My opinion about the animals is: as a libertarian I'm loathe to restrict people from having the pet they want, but as a sensible person I don't want my neighbor owning big cats or bears that could escape and eat my grandson, so I must reluctantly agree with such laws, but I am open to discussion about whether they just drive such ownership underground and create a worse situation.
In general, wild animals do not make good pets and it's possible the pet trade contributes to their extinction threat, but again, I'm not sure banning them doesn't just force the pet trade underground while hurting efforts to legally breed them in captivity just to avoid them going extinct. Captive breeding is not ideal (in China the tiger breeding program has morphed into a complete disaster) but for some species like the bonobo is it preferable to losing the species altogether? I don't know the answer.
My opinion about the guns: apparently the guy was no danger to the public from guns. Unlike animals, the guns would never escape and go around killing people on their own. His collection was no different from many gun enthusiasts' collections except some were technically illegal. He had formerly owned a gun shop and was a hoarder, never let anything go. They sent this man to prison for no reason insofar as protecting the public.
The prison stay apparently wrecked his marriage and broke his spirit, it being the second traumatizing event of his life. The first being drafted and sent to Vietnam.
People with a hoarder personality often have trauma in their history. This man hoarded animals, guns, cars, never could part with anything. Maybe what is missing here is that he should have received some kind of intervention and treatment after he returned from Vietnam. Have we made progress since then taking care of the psychological needs of our veterans?
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I'm not quite bored enough to read the long version, but from your synopsis, I see two or three issues.
1. Should we be allowed to own wild animals?
Yes, but ...
You need to prove that you know how to take care of them,and have the facilities to do so.
You need to have a veterinarian examine them regularly (annually) to verify they are being taken care of.
Currently, if you do own a wild animal and it escapes and kills someone, the animal get euthanized. You may or may not be fined or jailed.
The law should say if your animal kills someone, YOU get euthanized and the animal gets sent to a qualified care center.
2. Gun ownership;
Honest citizens should be allowed to have guns.
They should not have to be registered.
Convicted criminals (at least the violent type) should NOT be allowed to own guns.
3. Treatment of Veterans:
Nobody has ever taken sufficient care of war veterans. That is just wrong. I don't know how to fix it, but in the current social atmosphere where
practically everyone is thanking vets "for their service", perhaps this is the time to actually boost the spending so we can properly thank them.
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The sad ting about the legislation is it outlaws just about all constrictors, which make very good pets (they're decide and easily cared for) and cause far fewer attacks and fatalities than dogs. Moreover, I've read from multiple sources that there are actually more pet serpents in the United States than pet dogs.
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The sad ting about the legislation is it outlaws just about all constrictors, which make very good pets (they're decide and easily cared for) and cause far fewer attacks and fatalities than dogs. Moreover, I've read from multiple sources that there are actually more pet serpents in the United States than pet dogs.
Don't take this personally, but do you just make this shit up?
That said, I will have to look into that, but if true, it is a huge surprise to me.
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Don't take this personally, but do you just make this shit up?
That said, I will have to look into that, but if true, it is a huge surprise to me.
What? The perfesser make up crap? And can’t cite reliable references?
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Snake ownership 1,150,000 in 555,000 households. Dog ownership 69,926,000 in 43,346,000 households (in 2012). I guess it could have changed in the past five years.
https://www.avma.org/KB/Resources/Statistics/Pages/Market-research-statistics-US-pet-ownership.aspx
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Snake ownership 1,150,000 in 555,000 households. Dog ownership 69,926,000 in 43,346,000 households (in 2012). I guess it could have changed in the past five years.
https://www.avma.org/KB/Resources/Statistics/Pages/Market-research-statistics-US-pet-ownership.aspx
Hey! Don’t use easily obtained actual data to refute what the perfesser says!
He’ll be along shortly to tell us to go fuck ourselves.
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Reptiles more popular in the UK than dogs: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/3500882/Reptiles-now-more-popular-pets-than-dogs.html
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Fake news! Like the British Federation of Herpetologists doesn't have its own agenda! But I suspect that there are more ants in ant farms than the number of all other pets combined. But even that is outnumbered by my pet bacteria colony over there.
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Fake news! Like the British Federation of Herpetologists doesn't have its own agenda! But I suspect that there are more ants in ant farms than the number of all other pets combined. But even that is outnumbered by my pet bacteria colony over there.
This paints a slightly different picture.
But whoddathunk that FISH were actually the most popular pet.
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While we're on the subject, did you know that millions of illegals are building a super colony in California and surrounding areas, intent on the destruction of natives? I've said it once and I'll say it again. Build. That. Wall.
http://www.radiolab.org/story/226523-ants/
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This paints a slightly different picture.
But whoddathunk that FISH were actually the most popular pet.
I forgot to add the link to the above post.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/308201/leading-ten-pets-ranked-by-population-size-in-the-united-kingdom/