Crocodile Eats 5-Year-Old Boy - Parents Want Animal Spared

Originally posted by AshleyD
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How sad. What confuses me the most is how the parents aren't even trying to get the body back.

I think the answer may be in the second line of the story.

His parents, owners of a crocodile sight-seeing business

They are looking out after their business. People much rather see a 14 croc than a 8 ft one.

The part I find is sad is that they knew how dangerous crocodiles are, and probably should have prevented this from ever happening. Put up a fence, don't let the kid play by the water, something.

Originally posted by testrat
I think the answer may be in the second line of the story. [His parents, owners of a crocodile sight-seeing business] They are looking out after their business. People much rather see a 14 croc than a 8 ft one.

Oh my goodness. That makes my heart hurt even more. Please correct me if I am wrong but that is like they care more about their business then trying to recover the body of their son.

Question: if they could open up the crocodile without harming it to have found the body in the first place, why couldn't they have removed it before taking it to the zoo? As a parent of a 5 year old boy, this story is probably hitting me harder than most. There is no way I could go to sleep at night knowing his little precious body was in the digestive track of a predator when I could so easily recover it.

reply to post by AshleyD


Maybe the parents are thinking along the lines that if they leave the remains inside a living crocodile, that his spirit will live on or something like that. I'm assuming the remains aren't in the best of shape anyways. Probably looks like a bag full of chum.

Peace

reply to post by Dr Love


Oh no doubt. The little boy was probably a mess when they found him but just have a closed casket and be done with it. Such a heartbreaking story. I can understand not wanting to harm the croc (my good side understands that, at least) but I can't comprehend not providing your child a proper burial when it was right there able to be recovered.

I wish them much success in their business, I guess.

reply to post by AshleyD


I guess its debatable how much of the boy could be left. It did say that they stomach pump the animal to find some remains, may be they buried what ever they found. I have seen the inside of a alligator after it ate a golfer in Florida awhile back. (don't ask me why I have seen this) It did look like most of the body was still intact. But croc's do tend to tear there meals off in pieces so they very well could not be much left. Sad story anyway you look at it.

reply to post by testrat


Yeah, I saw that golfer, he was to'e up from the flo' up (to quote Martin Lawrence). He must have been playing Balata balls and didn't want to leave 4$ behind in the drink.

Peace

This is a big pile of steaming games.

These people should be on charges for endangerment and manslaughter.

The BS of telling everybody to leave the croc alone is simply emotional eyewash designed to distract everybody from the fact that they allowed their own 5 year old boy to be EATEN by a 14 foot long reptile.

Worse than that, normally intelligent people fall for this crap.

"Oh my. They are so enlightened. And in their grief! It's so touching."

They really love nature! It's so wonderful!

Merriam? You feeling ok?
Its refreshing? REFRESHING? This isn't a Junior Mint commercial. It's a small boy who is dead because his parents put him in a VERY unsafe situation and he ended up as a snack.

It's a freakshow! How can you people buy into the "love nature" games when it's just a ploy to distract from an inexcusable act on the part of the parents?

How much does life insurance pay out on "eaten by croc?"
Most likely not as much as they will gain by charging admittance to the "CROCK THAT ATE OUR KID DISPLAY" coming soon.

Save cash on the funeral! Just let old daddy crock finish digesting the pesky tyke and we can get on with business.
Forget the boy, save the crock.
He's gonna be worth a fortune.


SICK

Sick sick sick.



[edit on 18-2-2009 by badgerprints]

I'm not sure I would want to see my 5 year old son after being inside a crocodile, it would haunt me for the rest of my life.....

I don't think we can go around judging these parents as to why they didn't take the kid out, because we do not know what is going through their minds. It's all about the motives. I'm not sure I like how some of your comments assume why they did it and that they are sick.

I would have to talk to them to truly know.

[edit on 18-2-2009 by _Phoenix_]

reply to post by _Phoenix_


I agree with you for the most part. We don't really what they are thinking.
Maybe I was a bit overboard in my sarcasm but.............
I'm terribly disturbed with what some others are obviously thinking.

It's hard to believe people genuinely advocate killing an animal because it was hungry and ate what it found available. I personally don't understand why people believe they are above the chain of survival on this planet, other than they think they are. It's a fallacy. And if it's for the child's remains, is it really more dignified to be a puddle at the bottom of a wooden crate than it is to be fertilizer?

All personal issues aside, I think it's hypocritical to judge or condemn the parents of this child. As I believe with all certainty that any one of us would appreciate having a choice in this situation. They made a choice. Let them live with it.

[edit on 18-2-2009 by TravelerintheDark]

I don't see what getting the body back does. That's just a societal norm that people grasp on to to make themselves feel better. When I die, I hope they throw me into a shark tank or something, at least then I'm doing some good and not taking up space.

Having said that, its a huge tragedy. But WHAT does killing a simple animal do in this situation? Nothing. Nothing good comes from the death of the animal. I can understand the anger, for sure, but be an adult. Logic would tell you, there's nothing that can be done to get the kid back or get retribution.

Big, deadly animals kill things. Thats what they do. They don't weigh options or moral value.. They kill. The animal did nothing wrong, the family did. The parents are just about as stupid as it gets.

Do you think Steve Irwin would have wanted the stingray dead? No, he was an animal nut too, but there's not really anything wrong with that.

Originally posted by SantaClaus
I don't see what getting the body back does. That's just a societal norm that people grasp on to to make themselves feel better. When I die, I hope they throw me into a shark tank or something, at least then I'm doing some good and not taking up space.

I can understand that point. For instance, I could be tossed into a garbage bag and placed out at the curb for all I care. But that would be so unfair to my family who would like a place to grieve or pay respects. Not sure if you are a parent but I am and the parent's not desiring the body back is shocking to me. As a mother of a five year old boy, I would definitely want the body back. There is no way I would let him be digested in an animal.

We can get all weird about it and say he would live in my heart and oh this is just social norms talking but this is deeper than that to me.

And the thing is- it appeared the croc wouldn't have needed to be harmed to do it. So it has nothing to do with a vengeance killing. Anyways, I'm stuck on that matter but it does boggle my mind how another parent would seem to just let it be. I'd fight to have my son's body back out of respect and love for him. Even though I believe his body is just a shell and his true self would be in Heaven, it would be a way of paying respect to him and giving me closure in the matter.

[edit on 2/18/2009 by AshleyD]

No need to remove the boy from the croc's belly. Let the croc keep his meal. I don't see humans barfing up their burgers so cow parents can grieve properly. But then again maybe I greatly misunderstand the point of anorexia.

I do wonder about the parents competence, but mistakes happen. I've got nothing bad to say about them, they're handling this situation rationally.

Originally posted by SantaClaus
I don't see what getting the body back does. That's just a societal norm that people grasp on to to make themselves feel better. When I die, I hope they throw me into a shark tank or something, at least then I'm doing some good and not taking up space.

Someone elsewhere reminded that something will "develop" after a while. Nature takes her course, you know.

By the way, my Will calls for me to become fertilizer for a tree that will live for at least another 100 years or so.

jw

Originally posted by Salt of the Earth
reply to post by jdub297

 

Shocking. They should have ripped the thing's belly open. Perhaps the boy might have been swallowed alive. At the very least, get his body out in the best condition possible for proper burial.

What? They were stupidly in an area where crcodiles are known to inhabit. Its a tragedy, but the crocs just doing what instinct tells it to do

Protecting its territory? Poor alligator.

Its not an alligator, its a crocodile, which is a killer. Alligators are cuddly teddy bears compared to crocodiles

They are crawling all over Florida too, including in the fresh water lakes and ponds and swimming pools. They eat people's pets, and people cannot enjoy boating and fishing, or even feel safe in their homes with these man-eating creatures lurking around.

Sigh

Alligators are not man eaters

It's like that in India also. I saw a documentary on TV back when I used to watch TV (I don't anymore) of how the Indian women wash their clothes in this river full of alligators and have to keep an eye out, and one lady said her husband got dragged into the water and eaten by one.

That would've been a crocodile, alligators do not live in India, only the USA. An alligator will not drag someone into the water like a crocodile

best story i've rhed in a while.

glad the parents realize the alligator did nothing wrong.

reply to post by JPhish

just goes to show, whether it's development, pollution AGW, or whatever, Earth/Nature is always going to win over Man. Always.

I love her for that.

deny ignorance

jw

Originally posted by JPhish
best story i've rhed in a while.

glad the parents realize the alligator did nothing wrong.

For crying out loud...IT IS NOT AN ALLIGATOR!!!

Crocoldiles are far more vicious, much much larger and are killers, Alligators are far less advanced, and more docile that crocodiles. How do I know this? I live in the most crocodile prone area of the world.

Ive actually sat on an alligator to, at a crocodile park, but there's no way in hell I would try that with a croc

en.wikipedia.org...

en.wikipedia.org...

Ok so if your out taking a walk and decide you are hungry and you kill and eat a baby bear cub I don't think the mother of said cub will sit there and say " Well they were hungry and it's their nature ". Nope, she will maul you to death.

I think the reality of this is that the parents are being way to apethetic about their child dying in this horrible way and if the croc did it once he will do it again. I am not bloodthirsty and usually feel sympathy for animals, but in this case I say kill it.

I respect those of you who disagree with me, but I think it's just bordering on ridiculous to be so protective of this animal.

reply to post by Ellipsis


So, you're equating human intellect and rationale to that of a crocodile? How New Age of you.

Peace