I can walk around with a camera in any public place and take a picture of any public thing I want to–including people in public–without regard or concern for others’ feelings. And if someone objects, I am just as free to tell them to get lost.
What Stalinist state do you live in?
BTW, the link you provided cites a “public courtyard” on private property. Of course the owner of the property can dictate terms in a space privately owned but publicly accessible. And of course failure to leave when requested might warrant trespassing charges.
Exactly. We’re responding to what someone actually said. The outrage over taking pictures of kids at the zoo isn’t an absurd argument on our part. It’s a response to an absurd argument.
Just read through to the end of the thread and saw the mod note. Sorry if my last post continued the hijack.
What a train wreck.
One final thought on creepy adults and kids… I just remembered that the zoo we go to actually doesn’t even let adults in without kids. They have a sign at the entrance saying something like…
“For the safety of all our guests adults NOT accompanied by a child aren’t allowed admission.”
This alone would prevent solo adults from going in and taking pictures of people. It’s a sensible policy. I have no idea why someone without kids would go to a zoo.
I agree. It’s a ridiculous policy. And anyone who thinks it helps ensure “safety of all our guests” has no business running a zoo, or anything else for that matter.
That’s a simply deranged way to run a zoo. It’s pretty much a tacit admission that the place is crap. I go to zoos all the time, by myself, with adult friends, with my parents… I didn’t magically stop being interested in animals as soon as I hit 18.
Polices like that just add to the stupid paranoia that everyone adult is out to get kids, as well as the delusion that the only adults who are ‘safe’ are the ones who have children.
Truthfully, I’ve been to zoos much more often as an adult than when I was a kid. The idea that a zoo only allows adults accompanied by children sounds like Cuckooland to me.
Debaser, where is this zoo? I have a hard time believing this. A zoo near me sells season passes to a lot of adults who walk there for exercise (and the nice view of animals).
Where do you live Retardedland? Because that zoo is retarded. I hope they go out of business for being so retarded.
I am a single adult male. I have three cameras. I have a year long pass to our zoo. I take lots of pcitures of the “animals”. I will take extra when I go next Monday thinking happily of you.
I had to do some Googling to confirm, but the place in question is Davis Farmland. It’s in Sterling, MA. They have a corn maze and petting zoo, plus more traditional zoo animals behind fences to look at.
Their web site has a splash page up for details because they are closed for the winter. But a local library has the info:
In the past year or so I’ve been to:
Davis Farmland in Stirling, MA.
York’s Wild Kingdom in York, ME.
Franklin Park Zoo in Boston, MA.
The New England Aquarium in Boston, MA.
All of these places are primarily for families. They are packed with families and strollers and screaming kids. I went to zoos and aquariums with my family when I was a child and not that I’m a father I go so my kid can see it.
Why on earth would a grown up go to a zoo? Unless you are walking for exercise, as someone pointed out, or if you’re a wildlife biologist or something? Once you’ve seen a giraffe once why go again?
Maybe it’s a Michael Jackson thing, where people deprived of their childhood would seek this sort of thing out?
Well, consider my ignorance fought. Zoos (some of them at least) are for adults too. Although, I suspect that some of you don’t actually go to the zoo childless and are just venting some non-breeder recreational outrage that someone would suggest there are places that you aren’t welcome because you don’t have kids.
Jesus, that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. I bet the owners of that zoo bought into the “satanic panic” of the 80s, too. What knobs. And yes, adults like to go to zoos to, amazingly, enjoy the animals. I mean, why go to am arboretum? Once you’ve seen a certain tree or plant, no need to see it again. I know for myself, I like looking at cute things. Unbelievably, animals fall into that category. Since I can’t see a giraffe in my own backyard, I’m forced to behave like a pedophile and go to a zoo. Dear Og, why hasn’t anyone told me before now that I secretly a pervert?
Oh, and just for the record, Davis Farmland is billed as a “Children’s Discovery Farm.” In my humble opinion, that’s a far cry from a regular, old zoo.
OK now, settle down. You can make your point without the insulting language.
Everyone else can now back off the zoo-as-pedophile-haven highjack. We might as well end this thread because it’s so far off track, and yes I acknowledge I participated (as a poster) in the highjack, which I probably shouldn’t have.
So, one last chance: talk about deleting pictures or directly related issues only from now on, please.