"I hope people who see this will ... take an interest in the work that we're doing at the Aspinall Foundation, and help gorillas in the wild," British animal park owner and conservationist Damian Aspinall intones over sun-flooded footage of his daughter Tansy -- a toddler at the time the video was shot -- interacting with gorillas in a straw-filled enclosure.The video does not look very safe to me, but I am not a gorilla expert and I do not believe the state should be micromanaging the judgment of fathers. He was wise to conceal the video for 20 years.
But much of the attention surrounding the 20-year-old video of Aspinall's daughter that was posted on YouTube last week has dealt, not with the lives of gorillas in the wild, but with the question of whether or not letting a child play with gorillas is safe.
ABC News reported that Aspinall "was afraid to release the video before for fear of backlash," and 85 percent of voters in a Today Show poll said they considered Aspinall's actions to be "irresponsible parenting."
Parents get arrested for a lot less:
A Texas woman is suing an officer, a police department, and a neighbor after she was arrested for child endangerment, according to a Wednesday report.Apparently the kids were playing on a scooter in a cul-de-sac.
Yahoo.com said Tammy Cooper was arrested and spent the night behind bars after a neighbor contacted police claiming her children were unsupervised while playing outside the house.
Cooper said she was watching the 6 and 9-year-old children from a lawn chair, but police reportedly took the neighbor’s word and arrested Cooper.
3 comments:
There is a video on YouTube somewhere of a toddler that fell into a gorilla pit at some big city zoo about a dozen years ago.
This was not a socialized gorilla. This was never a "pet" gorilla.
That gorilla picked up the stunned toddler and--LITERALLY--handed it back to the screaming mother leaning over the railing.
Gorillas are no more aggressive or dangerous than men are. And yet both gorillas and men are demonized. We're guilty until proven innocent.
Found it. 1986.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-CMxMv34_A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihUGT7MdDB4&feature=related
Better footage. Sorry.
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