Saturday, July 25, 2015

People Can Be . . . Well so Stupid Sometimes — The Newest Craze Buffalo Selfies

I saw this article in the Post today. The headline says it all:
Bison selfies are a bad idea: tourist gored in Yellowstone as another photo goes awry
Gee can you say that that’s a stupid person. I thought you could.

I remember on one of the vacations we took as a family when I was young going to South Dakota. One of the highlights was going on a jeep ride to see the buffalo. We were on the back of an open jeep. At one point my dad tried to climb down to take a picture. He was told not to. The guide explained that if the animal charged my dad would never get back into the jeep in time. That buffalo can run very fast and even for such a large animal can go from a dead stop to a run very quickly.

The article talks about the fact people are told not to go close to the buffalo but do anyway. Here’s how dumb people are:

The root problem is simple, according to park spokeswoman Amy Bartlett.

“People are getting way too close,” she told the AP after Tuesday’s attack. “The [woman] said they knew they were doing something wrong but thought it was okay because other people were nearby,” she also said.

I’m curious as to what this woman thought the other people around her would do. Maybe someone had a cape they carried with them and try and get the buffalo away from her by waving it around. The thing that is really amazing is she was with here six year old daughter. I’m sorry but how stupid can you get.
The article show a series of selfies people have taken. Again what idiots.

But for an even better laugh there’s this from when the government was sued when someone was attacked:

Occasionally, gored tourists have gone after the park. In 1984, 70-year-old Gladys Hoffman from Waco, Tex., sued the federal government for $1.5 million after she was gored by a Yellowstone bison. Hoffman claimed that the United States, the Department of Interior and the park’s superintendent were guilty of negligence for failing to warn her of the danger, UPI reported at the time.

But a federal judge ruled against Hoffman. “The plaintiff admitted that she knew bison are dangerous animals,” U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer said. “The evidence showed the plaintiff nevertheless approached to within 15 feet” of the bison that gored her.

During the trial, a government attorney, Lisa Leschuck, added insult to injury, arguing that “an animal weighing 2,000 pounds with horns is nature’s warning,” UPI reported.
I'm sure at some point in time someone will not be so luck to walk away and will end up dead. But I think even that somehow will not stop people from being well stupid.

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