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

7-Year-Old Steals Grandma's Car, Becomes Hero

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 12:00:00 GMT

You may remember Latarian Milton, the seven-year-old who stole the keys to his grandma’s SUV and took it for a joyride with his friend because “it’s fun to do bad things, like drive into a car?” (He did, in fact, drive into several cars on his joyride.)

Well, just in case Latarian’s grandmother didn’t teach Latarian right and wrong with her violent threats—“If I thought they wouldn’t take me to jail, I’d whip his behind,” she said—Latarian has now become a sort of star for his bad ass ways. This recent radio interview starts with the interviewers telling Latarian that they are big fans of his. When they ask if people stop him and ask for his autograph, he says, "I'm a celebrity."

So basically Latarian has learned that acting out in potentially lethal ways makes you cool, and that violence is a great way to express your anger, so long as you don’t get caught.

Photo: ecoustics.com

Strollerderby : seven-year-old

7-Year-Old Feeds 13 Zoo Animals to Crocodile

7-Year-Old Steals Grandma's Car, Becomes Hero