Boy Breaks Into Zoo, Feeds Animals To Croc

[mom of 3 angels]

You are so right, Mom. Your three angels wouldn't do anything like this because you're a responsible parent, aren't you? It's too bad there aren't more parents out there like that.

Thanks, I try. Every kid is different--I definitely know which of mine I need to keep a closer eye on. But honestly, I can't see any of my kids doing something like this . . . although they do like catching grasshoppers and feeding them to our dog, but that has been okayed through mom and dad--the fewer grasshoppers around the better . . .

[toreskha]

I can see this from two perspectives. On one hand, everyone knows some kids this age and naturally thinks they'd never do something like that. They seem nice and playful, constantly doing funny things and so forth.

On the other...we're looking at this from the perspective of adults. Do you remember actually being 7 years old? At that age, a lot of kids are still naturally quite destructive and curious, especially when no adults are around. Just to keep things in perspective, think about the kind of brutally honest things that kids say in public, without realizing the social implications of delivering blunt insults.

Now, maybe this kid is a future serial killer, I don't know. But I'm thinking that if the rare 20-year old lizard had been a random yard lizard and the crocodile had been a cat or a dog, this wouldn't be such a big deal. What kid, or adult for that matter, hasn't rooted for their household pet chasing down a terrified and mortally wounded snake, rat, bug, moth, etc?

Frankly, kids cans be really mean, without knowing the context of their actions. This child may well grow up to be a completely normal person, and later be horrified at what he himself remembers doing.

[tattedupboy]

Ok, but I ask again, where were his parents? I don't so much give a damn about the lizard as much as I do about the fact that the kid was running around unsupervised.

[toreskha]

Ok, but I ask again, where were his parents? I don't so much give a damn about the lizard as much as I do about the fact that the kid was running around unsupervised.

Two possibilities:

1. The parents are idiots and didn't give a care in the world to the welfare or actions of their child.
2. The parents were slightly distracted for 5 seconds, at which point the kid had already disappeared.

I took a 5-year old to the zoo last year (I don't have any kids). That kid could really hustle and disappear in a split second, so one of us had to hold his hand almost the entire time. I'm glad he didn't get away and do anything crazy. Then again, people who have been parents for seven years should be able to keep up their kid. It's not like they're inexperienced.

[HK4U]

Two possibilities:

1. The parents are idiots and didn't give a care in the world to the welfare or actions of their child.
2. The parents were slightly distracted for 5 seconds, at which point the kid had already disappeared.

I took a 5-year old to the zoo last year (I don't have any kids). That kid could really hustle and disappear in a split second, so one of us had to hold his hand almost the entire time. I'm glad he didn't get away and do anything crazy. Then again, people who have been parents for seven years should be able to keep up their kid. It's not like they're inexperienced.

I think most likely #1. From the sound of the article this was something that would require the kid being by himself more that a few seconds. That is why I said how can a kid that young get the time alone with out adult supervision to do this?

[mom of 3 angels]

Two possibilities:

1. The parents are idiots and didn't give a care in the world to the welfare or actions of their child.
2. The parents were slightly distracted for 5 seconds, at which point the kid had already disappeared.

I took a 5-year old to the zoo last year (I don't have any kids). That kid could really hustle and disappear in a split second, so one of us had to hold his hand almost the entire time. I'm glad he didn't get away and do anything crazy. Then again, people who have been parents for seven years should be able to keep up their kid. It's not like they're inexperienced.

True, some kids are real fast at disappearing--I have one of those--feels like I spend half my life asking where my kid is. I dress him in bright colored shirts when going where there will be a crowd so he'll be easier to find when he wanders off as I know it will happen, and I constantly do headcounts when we're out--actually didn't notice doing it until I went somewhere and didn't take them all and kept panicing when they weren't all with me. Like you said, they've been his parent for 7 years, they should know a little about how to keep up with him. And yes, kids do crazy irresponsible things at that age--I probably did, I just don't remember doing them, and I know my kids have (but not to this extreme). That is why they are given parents--to supervise and direct them for good.
I don't know over what period of time this incident occurred, whether the zoo was opened (if so why did nobody notice?) or closed at the time, if his parents were nearby when it happened or if they live near there and he wandered over to the zoo. The part of the article about security cameras not catching him and the fact that he was able to get into that many cages led me to believe the zoo was not even open when he was there, but I may be mistaken. Just seems he was gone from supervision for an extended amount of time to be able to pull this off. If you notice your kid gone after your moment of distraction, the responsible thing to do would be go look for him--and again, maybe they did, the article doesn't say, but I know from experience the longer it takes you to notice or care that they're gone, the further they can go in that time.

[toreskha]

I don't know either...I'd just say to hold off on pointing fingers until all the facts are in. He may have been supervised by people who weren't even his parents at the time.

[HK4U]

Don't know about anyone else but when my kids were that age they never were alone long enough to run amuk like that.

[mom of 3 angels]

I don't know either...I'd just say to hold off on pointing fingers until all the facts are in. He may have been supervised by people who weren't even his parents at the time.

Very valid point. We don't have all the facts, so it's possible he snuck away from grandma or a babysitter.

[tattedupboy]

The fact is, we don't know what is the cause of the kid's disappearance. What we do know, however, is that a child went missing long enough to feed lizard parts to a crocodile. His parents had to have been distracted for more than just a few seconds for that to happen.