Maymont Bears Laid to Rest with 500 Looking On.

[MountainLaurel]

Some of you may remember the article from a couple weeks ago about two bears in Richmond that were killed after a 4-year-old climbed one fence and then stuck his arm through a second at a park. Here is the denouement to the story.

Two black bears killed last week after one of them bit a child were laid to rest Saturday at an emotional memorial service attended by 500 mourners.

The bears, euthanized to be tested for rabies after biting a 4-year-old who put his arm through the fence surrounding their 2-acre habitat, had their bodies exhumed from a landfill and cremated this week after a public outcry over their deaths intensified.

"This is where they belong," said a teary Samantha Monk, 9, of Glen Allen, who joined several others in laying flowers and wreaths at the grave. "They shouldn't have been in a landfill. That's a place for trash. These bears aren't trash."

The burial service at Maymont Park, where the bears lived, was attended by Mayor L. Douglas Wilder, clergy and Boy Scouts who presented the state and American flag.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/05/AR2006030500266.html

[arcane1]

1. ah, Maymont Park....

one of the few things I really miss about VA :(

[BrklynLiberal]

2. I think they should have shot the kid's mother....

She turned her head "for a few seconds" and he climbed a fence near a bear Preserve? DUH??!!!
How much do you think she is going to sue for?

[MountainLaurel]

6. Time will tell. n/t

[tatertop]

3. I worked in a zoo.

There is no way a child could get their hands
on, let alone through, my fences.
Stick your finger through a fence and
even a house cat might bite.
Anyone who has worked with animals should know
that fences must be made impenetrable or unassailable or both.

Lots of parents are fuck-ups and they have fuck-ups
for children. It is the zoo's job to keep the animals safe
from the fuck-ups.

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

4. Here's the mother's account:

http://timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1137834397397

<snip>

The mother of a boy bitten by a bear at Maymont said yesterday that she assured health officials that she was willing for her child to undergo rabies shots.

"I didn't want anything to happen to the bears. That was first and foremost," said Julia, a 30-year-old single mother of the 4-year-old. "We had decided to go ahead and do the rabies treatment."

But when she called city health officials on Thursday to tell them of her decision, they informed her that the two male black bears, ages 9 and 12, had been killed an hour or two before.

Julia, who agreed to an interview with The Times-Dispatch on the condition that only her first name be used, denied that she helped her son feed the bears when the two visited the park on Feb. 18. They were sharing an apple while walking behind the 2-acre bear habitat about 3 p.m., she said, when she turned her head for a few seconds. When she turned back around, her son had cleared the habitat's preliminary barrier, a 4-foot wooden slat fence, and was standing outside the 10-foot chain-link fence, she said. One of the bears was sitting just on the other side. "The bear was sitting there quiet and calm," Julia said. "The bear was not acting aggressive in any way." Before Julia could reach her child, she said, he had put his right hand through the fence and was bitten.

<snip>

[tatertop]

5. That makes me sad. Everything about it is sad.