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>If a human should be bitten, the state has no choice but to euthanize the otter. That's pretty gross. I'm sure there are ways around that, especially for an
by operatingthetan 3y ago
>If a human should be bitten, the state has no choice but to euthanize the otter.
That's pretty gross. I'm sure there are ways around that, especially for an endangered species.
- voakbasda 3y agoIf the State does not euthanize it after a bite, they could be found liable if someone gets bitten again. There’s also the question of rabies, the detection of which requires examination of the brain tissue.
- nradov 3y agoIt's not a liability issue. States generally have sovereign immunity over such things, and there is no legal requirement to protect people from wild animal attacks. This is more a matter of public safety, and humans generally come first.
- willcipriano 3y ago"It you attack a human, you die" probably predates modern humans.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- kijin 3y agoWe've been enforcing this rule for long enough that most animals avoid attacking humans even if they could easily kill us. The rule has been written into their genes through sheer evolutionary pressure. Except house cats, of course. Somehow we've bred them to attack us with impunity.
- _Adam 3y agoThey've optimized the fitness function "cuteness^2 - propensity to bite". So even when they're tearing up my arm it's still so adorable.
- willcipriano 3y agoInteresting to think about that in the context of tribal beliefs around the sprits of their ancestors providing them with protection from nature.
- maxerickson 3y agoIf they were more lethal we would probably do more about it. I startled a cat I had when it was sitting in the window getting worked up about a cat outside and it turned on me with all it's murderous power, clawing my shins pretty bad. I picked it up and put it in the basement.
- trentgreene 3y agoUnfortunately there’s no great answer — any mammal that bites could carry rabies even if not obviously rabid, and there’s no way to test for that when the animal’s alive. Running the prophylactic for rabies also ain’t cheap and runs the risk of human noncompliance, meaning someone ends up rabid (and eventually, dead).
- jfengel 3y agoThey can capture it and keep it, if possible, but that is difficult, expensive, and not always available. There is a recent popular book on it, Fuzz: When Animals Break the Law, by Mary Roach. She goes into the challenges facing human animal interaction. There's a lot to it, much of it unfortunately bad for the animals.
- fouc 3y agoI suppose it is gross because it highlights how completely we lack respect for nature (all other species), prioritizing the safety/dominance of 7 billion humans?
- operatingthetan 3y agoExactly, it's a power dynamic. Maybe someday something will come along and see the example we've set here and apply it to us.