I’m an animal lover and it’s sad to hear this, but I understand:
If the authorities turn a blind eye to people taking in wildlife like this, then there’s going to be all sorts of people “rescuing” wild animals for the fun of it (ie: stealing a baby wild animal from its mother to make content for social media.) Lots of people think baby animals left alone are abandoned, but that’s just a normal thing for mothers to go off and find food while leaving baby alone. Humans need to leave those babies alone.
Someone domesticating a wild animal and then releasing it back to the wild (such as this video) makes that animal a danger to humans and itself. Wild animals can carry pathogens that are dangerous for humans and should not be casually in contact with humans. Wild animals that are domesticated (not fearful of humans) will potentially socialize their offspring to also not be afraid of humans. Depending on the species this can be very dangerous for humans (ex: bear or predator animal) as even “domesticated” animals can become aggressive. The only people who should be rehabbing an abandoned/ill/injured wild animals are wild animal rescue organizations and/or a qualified vet who knows how to do this. Most wildlife rescues/sanctuaries have pretty strict protocols about how humans interact with the animals to ensure they are able to be released with that human-fear still intact.
I don’t specifically know why decapitation is part of this, but assuming it was done post-mortem (because it would be incredibly dangerous to decapitate a live animal) I assume it is done to test the brain for rabies.
TL;DR - If you love animals then leave them alone, and alert qualified rescue organizations if you see one in distress
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u/Embarkbark May 20 '26
I’m an animal lover and it’s sad to hear this, but I understand:
If the authorities turn a blind eye to people taking in wildlife like this, then there’s going to be all sorts of people “rescuing” wild animals for the fun of it (ie: stealing a baby wild animal from its mother to make content for social media.) Lots of people think baby animals left alone are abandoned, but that’s just a normal thing for mothers to go off and find food while leaving baby alone. Humans need to leave those babies alone.
Someone domesticating a wild animal and then releasing it back to the wild (such as this video) makes that animal a danger to humans and itself. Wild animals can carry pathogens that are dangerous for humans and should not be casually in contact with humans. Wild animals that are domesticated (not fearful of humans) will potentially socialize their offspring to also not be afraid of humans. Depending on the species this can be very dangerous for humans (ex: bear or predator animal) as even “domesticated” animals can become aggressive. The only people who should be rehabbing an abandoned/ill/injured wild animals are wild animal rescue organizations and/or a qualified vet who knows how to do this. Most wildlife rescues/sanctuaries have pretty strict protocols about how humans interact with the animals to ensure they are able to be released with that human-fear still intact.
I don’t specifically know why decapitation is part of this, but assuming it was done post-mortem (because it would be incredibly dangerous to decapitate a live animal) I assume it is done to test the brain for rabies.
TL;DR - If you love animals then leave them alone, and alert qualified rescue organizations if you see one in distress