Strollerderby : crocodile

I Dare You to Find a Cuter Kid Video

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:03:00 GMT

The eight painstaking years I spent studying French just paid off. I don’t know who this girl is or where she came off, but I am pretty sure that she will one day inherit the earth.

Just in case you temporarily forgot that little kids speaking French is the best part of life, I share this video with you of a master storyteller with the most zurbert-able cheeks you’ve ever seen. She spins an impressive tale involving Tigger, poverty, a clawed mammoth, a suicidal hippopotamus, and allergies to magic. Truly, this is not to be missed.

Photo: gledwood2.blogspot.com

Once upon a time... from Capucha on Vimeo.

7-Year-Old Feeds 13 Zoo Animals to Crocodile

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 19:29:00 GMT

In disturbing news involving small creatures, a seven-year-old boy from Australia broke into a zoo and went on a killing rampage. He scaled the zoo’s fence at around 8 in the morning, and spent the next half an hour smashing rocks on the heads of reptiles and then tossing them, live, into the crocodile’s enclosure (as shown in this photograph from a surveillance camera). The young boy then climbed over an outer fence around the croc’s cage to survey the gory scene of the 11-foot-long crocodile’s feast.

13 animals were killed in total, including a large turtle, rare lizards, bearded dragons, and the zoo’s most beloved animal, a 20-year-old, meter-long goanna.

Since Australian law prevents children under 10 from being charged with crimes, the boy faces no legal consequences—and it’s a good thing. What he needs is serious help. Security videos showed that he was “expressionless” throughout the killings. It is imperative that he receive psychological treatment and that his family receive visits from social workers. He may have a mental illness that requires medication, or he may be in a difficult family situation. Whatever the reason for his destructive tendencies, he must receive adequate care to prevent harming himself or others even further when he’s older.

So I hope that the reaction of the zoo’s director, Rex Neindorf, is not representative of how adults will treat the boy. According to Neindorf, the boy “will just get worse and worse and worse, by the time he’s 10 he will be a hardened criminal.” If that’s the message this seven-year-old gets from the all of the adults in his life, it may well become true.

Photo: Times Online

Buffalos Open a Can of Whup-Ass

Kelly Mills — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 22:55:00 GMT

There's a long list of things I can't handle now that I'm a parent. News stories about abused or kidnapped children. Movies like Babel. Books that have a child death as a plot device. Shoot, Eric Clapton's "Tears in Heaven" could send me into a tailspin now.

But you know what tops that list? Nature shows. Because the circle of life often involves baby animals being eaten. Yeah, yeah, it's a wild kingdom out there, but I don't care. I'm content to be a wussy.

So I got all choked up when I watched this video via So Close about lions and a croc fighting over a baby buffalo. It reminded me too much of sending my kid to kindergarten. But then, the buffalos form a posse, and...well, check out what happens. Don't mess with a buffalo baby!