The stupid parents will probably sue because their stupid kid was killed by a stupid gator.
Dinsdale had a good post in regards to how he would feel if one of his kids died in a similar fashion.
And I liked badmanas quote about kids on the freeway.
OK, I give up. What’s the punch line?
Well, I guess you destroyed my entire argument in one fell stroke. 
Should I have said X-Box instead?
Damn fucking right it does. Being at the top of the evolutionary ladder has its advantages.
pssst. - Abuse of the rolleyes smilie does not a rebuttal make
If the kid ran into traffic and got smeared by a car, should the car be sent to the crusher out of vengeance?
It seems to me an ugly world some of you propose, where folks - including 12 year olds - need not bear any responsibility for their actions. I have a 12 year old kid. She is certainly capable of making decisions, and she certainly makes her share of wrong ones. But if she made an especially bad decision and ended up injured or dead, I hope I would not automatically look for someone or something to blame other than herself and myself.
My daughter drives a 4-wheeler and a jetski - which is illegal and clearly against the posted warnings on the machines. But she is a better 4-wheeler than her 15 year old sister (also illegal) and better on the jetski than most adults. If she cracked up one day, I would only have myself to blame for allowing her to do this, and herself if she violated any of our numerous safety requirements.
I know we are in the Pit so I will allow for considerable hyperbole. But some of you also propose an extremely ugly world in which animals and their habitats only exist at our leisure, and can be eliminated at our pleasure. I am very aware of - and happy for - humans’ place in the food chain. But I care too much for generations down the road to casually accept that humans can choose to live anywhere they wish, without needing to accomodate the pre-existing flora and fauna and ecosystems. To do otherwise is to be extremely shortsighted of ecological timespans and unforeseeable implications of today’s actions upon future generations.
For crying out loud. If you wish to proclaim that you deserve some special status because of your position as an alpha predator, then you should prove you (and your kids) are entitled to such status by exhibiting at least a little common sense.
-If you move to the Rockies, you oughtn’t make a pracice of hand feeding grizzlies.
-If you like swimming in the ocean, you should learn what to avoid doing so as not to make yourself an appealing target for shark attack.
-If you live in NYC, you should learn how to cross streets safely, and what neighborhoods to avoid after dark.
-If you go out hiking, you should dress appropriately and inspect yourself afterwards for ticks.
-Wear bugspray and sunscreen.
-Wear a helmet while biking/motorcycling.
-And, if you move to Florida, you ought to learn and practice basic safety practices to avoid alligator attacks.
Or, feel free to disregard all of these simple measures. But if you experience injury or death as a result, too fucking bad. You will get no sympathy from me, nor will I support any significant public action or expenditure in response.
pssst. No need for rebuttals - you’re doing a great job burying yourself without our help.
Uh, Ben? Describing humanns as existing at the top of the evolutionary ladder suggests a rather profound ignorance of evolution.
There are laws that say otherwise.
That’s not Darwinism. But who can argue with “Fuck 'em”?
Ben Hicks:
It’s this sort of philosophy that promotes the indiscriminate decimation of the earth’s resources.
We should all strive to be good stewards of our natural and agricultural resources to ensure a sustainable world.
And I’m afraid that you really really need to brush up on the theory of evolution, babe.
And, recognize that even if you do all these things, something bad may still happen to you. And if it does, you’re not necessarily entitled to compensation or vengeance because of it. Not unless some other human being caused it, either through malice or neglect of his or her legal responsibility.
Ben Hick
Master race??
It isn’t about “punishing” the gator or the child not having any responsibility for his own death. The kid is dead. He paid the ultimate price for his bad decision. No one is exactly blaming the gator.
But, the large gators in that area have been proven to be aggressive. They have lost their fear of humans. Therefore, to protect other children and pets (and following FL regulations) they should be killed. They aren’t killing all the gators in the area. Just, the very large ones that really shouldn’t be living so close to humans anyway.
Did you guys not read the other article linked to the OP’s news article? A gator in another area of FL killed a 120lb dog that was standing on the shore. The people that lived in the area had never seen a gator around before. What if that had been a child? Would you guys be for killing the gator then? Or would you still call the kid stupid?
Finally, what about the thousands of other large “aggressive” gators killed in FL every year? The only thing different about the OP’s seven gators and the other thousands is that one of the OP’s seven killed a child and the others were around. If you guys want to cry unfair then cry it about the thousands of animals who were killed when no one was hurt.
Does this mean that Ben Hick plans to round up all the gators for resettlement in the East? And how does he plan on sewing those little cloth patches onto the gators?
No, I would call the hypothetical kid unfortunate and I would feel sad and I would kill the gator. I call this kid stupid because he was. He repeatedly swam in an area that was known to have gators. If they kill 1 or more gators because they are living to close to humans, so be it. But not as “payback”.
In Conceivable
I, for one, can’t argue with the above sentiment.
That said, I think that it’s vital to remember that we share the planet and accomodations must be made to ensure our peaceful co-existence or we will all suffer.
The adventure writer Tim Cahill lives outside Yellowstone National Park and he noted that fact that every other year or so, some complete fool tries to pet or ride a bison.
Need I say more?
I don’t understand why this boy was so oblivious to the danger of gators.
gobear:
They aren’t killing these gators as “payback”. That is the whole point
In conceivable - not you, but several others suggested killing gators for revenge.
Man, the facts in the OP linked story are pretty amazing. It is a wonder this child genius made it to 12! The kid was either mentally deficient, dangerously reckless, or something else not at all desireable
From the stories linked from that one:
Wildlife officials say 90 percent of all gator attacks on humans come from people feeding the reptiles.[
They also say that the law requires that captured gators are killed. Only very small ones are relocated.
No punchline.
In Conceivable, it’s not clear that it’s happening in this particular case, but mass slaughter of animals for revenge does happen. I’m thinking mostly of the aggressive hunting of sharks in response to shark-attack hysteria. It would be bad if people started to think of alligators the way they think of sharks, as “man’s natural enemy” and nonsense like that.
Are you serious? You can’t see the difference here?
Many of you are showing a profound lack of understanding of the nature of animals themselves.
Use the brains that evolution has in fact provided you with to figure out the big picture here. Animals act out of instinct. So do human beings. However, our capacity to reason is indeed an evolutionary advantage and this is indeed why we are at the top of the food chain.
You don’t equate something trying to kill you with being bad? Why? Because they don’t mean anything against you personally? This makes you smarter than me, how? Even the animals instinctively equate something trying to kill them with being bad, you moron. Or do they defend themselves or their offspring to the death because they’re somehow more honourable than us?
It is utter self-righteous bullshit to suggest that if your child was killed by a gator, revenge would play no part in your desire to kill it. Perhaps not so much on the part of others involved, but there would still be a tiny bit of that in there nonetheless. All of us, even the most shrill, self-deluded PETA card-carrying one of us still has an instinctual, visceral response to being threatened by a fucking alligator.
To climb up on a high horse and proclaim yourself above that is nothing more than pure (and totally obvious) posturing. There’s no moral high ground here no matter how hard you try to shore up your stance.
It’s hardly “nonsense” to call something that can and will eat you if given the chance, one of our natural enemies. Mass revenge slaughter is one thing, agreed that it is reason overruled by the visceral response. However, 7 animals is hardly mass slaughter. It’s called “erring on the side of caution” if anything.
And no, no one has said outright that the kid “deserved” to die, that’s correct. But many of you are damn well implying it with your cavalier attitude towards the horrible death of this kid.