How much do you like animals?

[heartstrings]

This reminds me of Romans 1:18-32. It also reminds me of the Egyptians and their animal-gods.. I wonder if the ancient idolaters were as nuts about animals as people are today?

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/gorilla-killing-at-cincinnati-zoo-sparks-probe-into-possible-criminal-charges/ar-BBtH9Uc?ocid=spartanntp

Edited May 31, 2016 by heartstrings

[John81]

Most animals I like fine, especially those I can fry!

I've read many comments online regarding the shooting of the gorilla to save a child and it really lets a person know just how warped of mind and degenerate many in this country have become. I couldn't even keep count of the numbers of people spouting their "wisdom" of why it would have been better for the child to die than the endangered gorilla. That doesn't even touch upon the many calls for the parent(s) to be tortured, executed, fed to gorillas for "allowing" the child to be with the gorilla.

So many of the liberal mindset actually believe we can make the world perfect if everyone would just follow their way. Whether openly or inside their heart, many believe the elimination of those who stand in the way of their utopia would be justified and beneficial.

The devil has done a masterful job blinding so many and imputing horrible ideologies into their minds.

[heartstrings]

That's a sad fact.

 

[HappyChristian]

Matt Walsh is a Christian blogger. While he might not follow all of IFB standards, he really does cut to the heart of issues very well, because his worldview is based on God's Word without apology. He is a regular contributor to The Blaze online, from whence this article was copied. It is the same article on his blog, though, to give credit where it is due. He makes some very good points, with some very graphic descriptions. 

 

A terrifying scene unfolded at the Cincinnati Zoo this past weekend.

A 4-year-old boy tumbled into an animal exhibit occupied by a giant 400 pound gorilla named Harambe. As horrified zoo patrons – including the child’s mother – looked on, the gorilla violently dragged the boy from one end of the enclosure to the other. Finally, after about 10 minutes, zoo officials and law enforcement officers determined that they had to shoot and kill the gorilla in order to save the kid’s life. The animal died quickly. The boy was rushed to a hospital where he was treated for non-life threatening injuries. A happy ending to what could have been a terrible, tragic story.

I call it a happy ending because the young boy lived, which is a result that would have seemed very much in question to anyone who happened to witness the situation in real time. Of course I’m not happy the ape died – I didn’t wake up on Saturday morning hoping that a gorilla in Cincinnati would meet his untimely demise – but when a human’s life is threatened by an animal, the only thing I care about is saving the human. The moment the gorilla grabs the boy, my first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, one hundredth, one millionth, etc., priorities are to save the boy. If the boy is saved, then I am happy. That’s all.

But, predictably, my priorities — and more importantly, the priorities of the zoo workers and police officers on the scene — are not shared by everyone. We are living in the days of neo-paganism, where legions of depraved souls seem only capable of mustering compassion for wild beasts. As for human beings, they feel only contempt and indifference.

Over the last couple of days, we’ve been treated to another round of our trademark National Outrage. People have been creating petitions and venting their seething rage on social media. A Facebook memorial page was immediately created, with a picture of Harambe accompanied by the caption, “I was someone, and my life mattered.” Heartbroken citizens planned a candlelight vigil. Others left flowers at a statue of the beast, borrowing a page from the pagan animal worshipers of ancient times. Some protested outside the zoo, claiming the gorilla should not have been shot. Scores of others have echoed this sentiment, insisting that Harambe was only very gently dragging dragging a child around his cage like a rag doll.

Many people have, calling upon their extensive zoological training and education, come to the conclusion the animal should have been tranquilized. Officials at the zoo explained that a tranquilizer would take several minutes to work, and during that time the animal would be even more agitated, further endangering the boy’s life. But that’s a risk worth taking, according to a lot of people.

Others have been more blunt. If you make the mistake of reading the reactions on Twitter or in the comments section under articles about this incident, you’ll find that a good number of folks think this should have been settled by “survival of the fittest.” Let the preschooler and the quarter ton beast work it out between them. If that means a child is ripped apart, so be it.

One particularly compassionate reader put it to me this way through email:

“[edited due to foul language]. The gorilla was innocent. He wasn’t hurting the kid. They should have taken BOTH lives into account. It’s not fair to kill a gorilla because of the idiocy of people. The kid was in his habitat. If the kid ends up dead, that’s not the gorilla’s fault. Maybe they should feed the stupid [edited due to foul language] parents to the lions next. [edited due to foul language].” (editing done by HappyChristian)

This is not the rambling of a fringe nutjob. Well, he is a nutjob, but he’s not fringe. Many people feel the same way.

A guy on Twitter wished that humanity would become extinct so that gorillas and other creatures could finally reign in peace. His comment received almost 1,000 “likes” in the space of one hour. Some have blamed the child, saying he entered the gorilla’s space “wrongfully,” and perhaps should have been left to face the consequences. Another popular opinion is that the enormous beast was “only trying to protect the child,” which is a conclusion invented out of thin air based on nothing but Disney movies. Fortunately, the zoo was not willing to risk the kid’s life based on these childish fantasies.

Nearly everyone seems to agree that the child’s mother is a worthless scumbag who should be locked in prison on ape-manslaughter (apeslaughter?) charges. It may be true that the mother acted negligently. As of right now, we don’t know anything about her or what led to this situation. If she did in fact leave her child alone near the gorilla cage while she walked a half mile away to check out the ostrich exhibit, then she does deserve much of the blame. But any parent knows that kids can create enormous, life-endangering trouble for themselves in the blink of an eye. As opposed to naive, presumptuous childless people who’ve never been responsible for anything but their pet goldfish but still feel qualified to make sweeping judgments against parents when terrible things happen.

We have all looked away from our kids for a second and turned back just in time to stop them from doing something potentially fatal. Any parent who claims otherwise is a ridiculous liar. The fact that most of us did not pay the ultimate price for that extremely momentary lapse is only a matter of luck, not virtue or skill. All that to say, I am not ready to immediately convict this mother of criminal negligence. Not only that, but, call me crazy, I feel more compassion for her than anger. For God’s sake, the woman watched her boy get accosted by a giant gorilla for ten minutes. The horror and pain she must have felt is likely punishment enough. Unlike some members of the Twitter jury, if I were there witnessing all of this, I would not have run up to the woman as she was finally reunited with her son and screamed, “IDIOT! I HOPE THEY FEED YOU TO THE LIONS!”

In any event, the mother’s parenting ability is a separate question. The most troubling thing to come out of the incident is the reaction of people who think the gorilla should not have necessarily been sacrificed for the sake of the child. That itself is far, far more tragic than the death of the animal. And, to be clear, it is a wicked and indefensible position. Only a very sick, very troubled person would have difficulty deciding whose life should be prioritized when an ape and a human child clash. Only a person with contemptible, perverse values would, even for a moment, question the decision made by the police and the zoo. There is no real controversy here. It is very simple. And anyone who struggles with it is disturbed on a deep, spiritual level.

That’s why we ought to be terrified that so many people would not only place the ape and the child on the same level, but even put the ape above the child. It’s comforting to imagine that these people occupy a very small, isolated corner of our society, but that would be wishful thinking. There are, I’m afraid, a huge number of Americans who would watch that video of the gorilla dragging the boy and feel a greater dread for the gorilla’s fate than the boy’s. That is a fact that, although unsurprising, should fill any decent person with great sorrow and frustration.

And now it is necessary to point out that today, while the media obsesses over an ape and thousands of people cry that they will ”miss” a zoo animal they didn’t even know existed on Friday, there will be another 125,000 abortions. On a daily basis, a group of people larger than the population of Provo, Utah are systematically exterminated. None of them are given a name, and there will be no candlelight vigils for any of these victims.

While the ape was killed quickly and humanely, these children will not be given the same consideration. Depending on the trimester, the executions will be carried out in a variety of different ways. A common method, probably utilized hundreds of times each day, is called a Dilation and Evacuation (D&E). In this procedure, the abortionist pries open the mother’s cervix with a metal instrument, inserts a suction tube to extract the amniotic fluid, and then uses a pair of sharpened forceps to methodically tear the baby apart limb by limb.

The legs are usually ripped off first. Then the arms. Then the abdomen, and so on.  Finally the skull is crushed into little pieces until the child’s brain oozes out of the woman’s vagina. At this point, the abortionist knows the act is complete. Soon the woman will be cleaned up, handed a bill for 400 dollars, and ushered quickly to the exit. This is a scene that plays out over and over again, every day, all across the country and the world.

There is outrage over these senseless acts of brutal violence, but only in certain circles. In fact, the outrage is so exclusive that we even have a name for the sorts of folks who don’t think we should be dismembering 50 million kids each year. We call that very specific group of people “pro-lifers.” Those who are not pro-life are either indifferent to the mountain of dead human bodies piled in medical waste dumpsters outside abortions clinics, or quite enthusiastic about the whole thing. The indifferent and the enthusiastic seem to outnumber the pro-lifers by wide margins.

But outrage over the death of a jungle beast is far more mainstream. And this was a beast directly threatening the life of a child. One can only imagine how most Americans would react if a demented zookeeper decided to kill a baby gorilla by dismembering it and crushing its skull. I expect angry mobs would burn down the zookeeper’s house and stone him to death in the street. Then they’d build a golden icon of the unfortunate creature and every year, on the date of its death, they’d make pilgrimages to the holy shrine. In fact, they’re pretty much already doing that with Harambe, and it’s only been two days.

These are the consequences when a culture severs itself from reality and rejects values that are rooted in a love of God and a recognition of moral absolutes. It doesn’t take long before this lost and detached cultures plunges into barbarism, paganism, and insanity.

Those of us who do not want to go along for the ride can only stand firm and continue reasserting the most basic and self-evident truths. In this case, the truth that human life is more valuable than animal life. All of the animals in the entire world are not worth one child. All of the beasts that have ever existed do not equal the life of even the most despicable person. There is no question that an ape should be killed to protect a child. Indeed, if it were necessary, I would personally kill a thousand apes to protect one child, and I would feel no remorse at all.

Beyond that, one abortion is a greater tragedy than the extinction of an entire species of animal. A million dead kittens or a hundred thousand butchered elephants do not even come close to matching the horror of one slaughtered baby. If you cannot see it that way, you are a confused and morally corrupt person. But all the same, I would choose your life over that gorilla’s. I would choose it over every gorilla on Earth. Because no matter how unconcerned you may be about the lives of other people, you are still a human being. And that means something to me, even if it doesn’t mean anything to you.

 

This is from Amanda O'Donoughue. She posted it on Facebook and eventually it made its way to my newsfeed. She has worked with animals such as this and so speaks from that experience eye-view. 

 

 am going to try to clear up a few things that have been weighing on me about Harambe and the Cinci Zoo since I read the news this afternoon. 
I have worked with Gorillas as a zookeeper while in my twenties (before children) and they are my favorite animal (out of dozens) that I have ever worked closely with. I am gonna go ahead and list a few facts, thoughts and opinions for those of you that aren't familiar with the species itself, or how a zoo operates in emergency situations.

Now Gorillas are considered 'gentle giants' at least when compared with their more aggressive cousins the chimpanzee, but a 400+ pound male in his prime is as strong as roughly 10 adult humans. What can you bench press? OK, now multiply that number by ten. An adult male silverback gorilla has one job, to protect his group. He does this by bluffing or intimidating anything that he feels threatened by.

Gorillas are considered a Class 1 mammal, the most dangerous class of mammals in the animal kingdom, again, merely due to their size and strength. They are grouped in with other apes, tigers, lions, bears, etc.
While working in an AZA accredited zoo with Apes, keepers DO NOT work in contact with them. Meaning they do NOT go in with these animals. There is always a welded mesh barrier between the animal and the humans.
In more recent decades, zoos have begun to redesign enclosures, removing all obvious caging and attempting to create a seamless view of the animals for the visitor to enjoy watching animals in a more natural looking habitat. *this is great until little children begin falling into exhibits* which of course can happen to anyone, especially in a crowded zoo-like setting.

I have watched this video over again, and with the silverback's posturing, and tight lips, it's pretty much the stuff of any keeper's nightmares, and I have had MANY while working with them. This job is not for the complacent. Gorillas are kind, curious, and sometimes silly, but they are also very large, very strong animals. I always brought my OCD to work with me. checking and rechecking locks to make sure my animals and I remained separated before entering to clean.

I keep hearing that the Gorilla was trying to protect the boy. I do not find this to be true. Harambe reaches for the boys hands and arms, but only to position the child better for his own displaying purposes. 
Males do very elaborate displays when highly agitated, slamming and dragging things about. Typically they would drag large branches, barrels and heavy weighted balls around to make as much noise as possible. Not in an effort to hurt anyone or anything (usually) but just to intimidate. It was clear to me that he was reacting to the screams coming from the gathering crowd.

Harambe was most likely not going to separate himself from that child without seriously hurting him first (again due to mere size and strength, not malicious intent) Why didn't they use treats? well, they attempted to call them off exhibit (which animals hate), the females in the group came in, but Harambe did not. What better treat for a captive animal than a real live kid! 
They didn't use Tranquilizers for a few reasons, A. Harambe would've taken too long to become immobilized, and could have really injured the child in the process as the drugs used may not work quickly enough depending on the stress of the situation and the dose B. Harambe would've have drowned in the moat if immobilized in the water, and possibly fallen on the boy trapping him and drowning him as well. 
Many zoos have the protocol to call on their expertly trained dart team in the event of an animal escape or in the event that a human is trapped with a dangerous animal. They will evaluate the scene as quickly and as safely as possible, and will make the most informed decision as how they will handle the animal. 
I can't point fingers at anyone in this situation, but we need to really evaluate the safety of the animal enclosures from the visitor side. Not impeding that view is a tough one, but there should be no way that someone can find themselves inside of an animal's exhibit. 
I know one thing for sure, those keepers lost a beautiful, and I mean gorgeous silverback and friend. I feel their loss with them this week. As educators and conservators of endangered species, all we can do is shine a light on the beauty and majesty of these animals in hopes to spark a love and a need to keep them from vanishing from our planet. Child killers, they are not. It's unfortunate for the conservation of the species, and the loss of revenue a beautiful zoo such as Cinci will lose. tragedy all around.

[heartstrings]

Yes, it is pagan, depraved, terrifying and sad. I do like animals, myself. But people are worth far more than animals; "more than many sparrows" as Jesus said.  I too would have shot that gorilla, to save that little boy, and not lost a minute's sleep over it.

[Rebecca]

I like animals. A lot. But I do not value their lives over a humans life. I deliberately stayed away from articles and especially comment sections because I knew what I would find there and it would disgust me to my core. People value animal life above humans all the time. I see this whenever a vicious dog mauls/kills a child. There is outrage if the dog is shot at the scene or euthanized later. There is a fight to save the dog (and succeeded, look up Mickey, the dog that tore off a childs face - the child lived) at all costs. They blame the child "...must have been provoked" "...was in it's territory" etc. They also blame the parent for raising such a "horrible" child. I figured I'd see these same comments concerning the gorilla. Apparently I was right judging by what you're saying here. When it comes to the untimely death of a vicious animal due to attack on a human, people behave just like the vicious animal, attacking the victims a second time.

In my opinion, all gorilla enclosures should be enclosed the same way lions are. Gorillas are extremely dangerous animals and their enclosures should not be accessible to curious, energetic toddlers/young children who love to see animals close up. Way too often I hear of a child falling into enclosures like this, and it just tells me the zoo needs to close that enclosure off to the public until it's made safe.

 

[heartstrings]

Yes, some of the most shocking and depraved things I've ever read have been from these animal worshippers. Our country is allowing the wholesale slaughter of unborn children and none of these people seem to care about that at all; but let a turtle, whale, lion, or gorilla be killed and they're mad as hornets. I saw where over 460,000 signed a petition about this gorilla incident.

2For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;

[swathdiver]

I love animals more than a PETA fool.  For my love and affection for God's creatures is centered on the Word of God.  It is not centered on some nut's secular-humanist ideology for they do not even know what love really is or means as there's is without Christ. 

Edited June 1, 2016 by swathdiver
Grammar

[heartstrings]

Me too.

 

 

[Alan]

Always enjoy your photos, videos, and stories about your farm and animals.