[ in respnse to a 12 year old being killed by a crocodile]
@tunabreath

I hope this may help some of you on both sides (pro gator/poor child, family and friends)
My daughter was warned to NEVER go to a sand pit on the property next door where she liked to go to catch bullfrog tadpoles. She was warned about the drop-offs and how dangerous they can be, how so many children drown in them. The day after a most severe warning she sneaked off with her younger brother and her friend. [b
]She sneaked away and she drowned. Did she deserve it? No. Is it her fault? Yes

She was almost 11, she was a very bright girl who attended William and Mary University as part of the "Gifted" program, so she wasn't stupid. Maybe she thought she was so smart she thought she knew better. She was hard headed.
I know it was her fault. I don't want or need the pit filled in or have a fence around it even though it was offered(revenge). I doubt anyone will ever go there again for a long time except to visit the place where she died. The death of a child devastates a community.

Sorry for your loss tunabreath. But the fact that people - even 11-12 year old children, bear tragic consequences for their stupid choices, doesn't change my opinion.

People cannot be protected from every possible danger in the world. They certainly cannot be protected from themselves if they wish to act recklessly or foolishly.

A greater percentage of kids who choose to ride bikes without helmets, swim with gators, or ignore their parents' repeated instructions about avoiding water-filled sandpits are going to die than kids who wear their helmets, swim in safe places or at least get their foolish asses out of the water when the gators slide their asses in, or listen to their parents' repeated stern warnings.

And that, IMO, is how it should be.

Do the dead kids "deserve" to die? Well, not if you think that means they were "bad" people to whom "bad" things should occur. But I do not think it is really a terrible thing when people bear the consequences of their reckless behavior.

Personally, I get a lot more broken up about a little kid who develops cancer, than some kid who endangers himself. Many people have commented that there isn't exactly a shortage of alligators. Well, it doesn't look like we are in danger of running out of 12 year old kids either.

And I feel VERY strongly about the inherent good of wild places and wildlife.

Unfortunately, I think most humans are too shortsighted or outright ignorant to realize the harm they are doing their descendants countless generations down the line when they cut down, drain, and pave increasing amounts of natural habitat. For the most part, people do not move into swamps, forests, and mountains out of necessity. Instead, it is done out of selfish preference (at least in developed countries).

Again, I far prefer that stupid and/or reckless kids die, than those who heed their parent's warnings and exercise common sense. Recalling back to nature shows on public TV, isn't it the foolish and reckless specimens (in addition to the old or sick) that get culled from the herd? Sorry you guys dislike having such terms applied to your particular species of beast, but your indignation does not make those terms any less accurate.