“Here is our family’s only statement and we wish to remain anonymous:
First we want to thank the zoo’s security staff (Particularly Jeff) for their prompt and professional help as well as fantastic follow up after the incident to make sure my son was ok.
We regret the incident that took place at the zoo yesterday. Our son is severely autistic, non verbal, and is also diagnosed with ADHD and epilepsy. Animals are his obsessions and The zoo is likely his most favorite place on earth. we as annual zoo pass holders visited dozens of times in his 13 years of life without incident.
While my wife and I were at work his caretaker and grandmother decided to take him for a nice day at the zoo, and as any parent of autism can attest, we were so grateful for the help. He had a great day without incident then at the very last moment and without warning he was able to break away from his grandmother and jumped into the exhibit with the hornbills. He proceeded to chase them for approximately 30 seconds or so as his grandmother figured out how to get into the exhibit to help him. She was eventually able to get him out with the help of some fellow zoo goers and security staff.
We are animal lovers and are relieved that the animals were not hurt during the incident. I have personally reached out to the director of operations of the zoo as of this morning to personally apologize and see if there is any way we can help or make amends. In the time since the videos were posted, i responded to one of them trying to explain the situation and have since received messages wishing harm and death upon my son and my family.
While we understand how upsetting it is, we do ask for some patience, empathy and understanding for our son. He adores animals and would never do serious harm to them. It’s apparent he didn’t fully understand his actions and his impulses took over. We don’t use this as justification, we just ask for some grace as we move forward to make things right.”
If they were geese, he woulda been obliterated. One karate kicked my car door once because I stopped 50 feet away to let his family cross the road in peace and safety. Literally chased the car and left its footprint on the door
They are VERY territorial, I've met these two individual birds in person and they don't like it when people even lean over the railings of the exhibit. They must have been LIVID and very eager to finally take a jab at a human that got within pecking range
I used to help out a neighbor with an ostrich ranch back in the 90s - I had so much respect for those stupid birds. The rancher was fond of saying that ostriches could beat a lion in a death match any day. I'm not sure if that's true, but they had that same deadly "toe" cassowaries have they use to disembowel any animal that threatens them.
Oh man, they’ve got those “Velociraptor” feet and a beak they can break bones with. That kid wouldn’t even have time to learn his lesson. Well maybe he would learn that he was wrong, but by that time he’s not going to have much time left for it to make it into even short term memory.
Geese are scary. My mom had a friend that had Guard Geese when I was a kid. They would stand at your car door and glare, daring you to get out, until someone came out of the house to escort you in.
I would ban the adult that brought the kid there. It’s obvious the kid isn’t well and it’s irresponsible to knowing let loose of someone you know full well something like this will happen.
As a father of an autistic son this was my reaction as well. Not saying don’t bring the kid to the zoo, I take mine all the time, but you can’t let this happen.
Depends what country .. some idiot climbed the lion enclosure in Brazil last year.. he was mauled to death.. the lioness was spared 🤷♂️ wasn’t her fault she has no idea what was going on
Depends on the scenario too. In your example, the guy was already dead before staff could intervene, and no one else was in immediate danger, so they let the lioness live. With Harambe, the kid was still alive, so the zoo staff prioritized his life over the gorilla's
Chimps are fucked up. They go for the eyes, face, nuts and then fingers when you try to defend yourself. Google chimp attacks. Count how many of the men have nuts still.
A hornbill can still do enough damage to teach them a lesson. I'd hate for an innocent cassowary to get Harambe'd because of some dumb kid. I like the way you think though.
I wasn't a fan of them either until I had a 2 year old who liked to wander away from us. We only used it until we were able to teach him to stay near us.
I’ve never understood why everybody has a problem with those. Toddlers are known to book it in a random direction at any moment, so it seems like an ok solution.
They have also been around for a looooooo g time, they aren't a new invention. Ever hear of the term "apron strings"? They were strings to tie a toddler to their mom's apron so the kid couldn't wander off and hurt themselves.
I am a fan. I love seeing all the little kids with them (currently thinking of the ones the preschools use the little kids can hold onto or stick their arms in, but I like the leashes too). It means they're safe. If a leash means kids can be outside, the adults can be outside, everyone can be active and safe? Right up my alley! Safety is dignity.
Years back I was joking with parents about this to learn I was on one. They said they just couldn't keep up with me, I'd just go. I personally see 0 problems with it and got a great laugh
I worked at Disney World in the parking department for a few years, the leashes keep a lot of kids from darting out in front of cars in the lots. Big fan of the leashes!
I was on a leash as a kid. Didn’t do me any harm as far as I’m aware. I used to like running off and jumping into bodies of water, so that may have been the reason.
Those leashes prevent real harm and dangerous situations. A parent knows if their kid needs to be on a leash. Don't look at it as a sign of bad parenting, but rather good parenting that understands the needs of their child.
Let me say what we are all thinking…
“What a fucking idiot”
Edit: Crazy how this comment took off.
What’s even more crazy is how many people cannot seem to understand that this comment was made hours before the MOD below made their post. In fact, it was one of the first comments on this video.
Should also add, it was never specified who the “idiot” was, could be the parents, kids, person who filmed it. Many of you ran with your own thoughts and went wild.
Sad part is, if most of you got this upset about the shit our “leaders” do every single day, this world would be a lot better place.
I used to work at Disney. On two occasions I had to ask kids not to chase the ducks around. One of those times the parents ripped into me. Threatened to file a complaint with Disney against me. They watched as their kid terrorized the ducks and did nothing so I stepped and just asked her not to do that. It’s wild how retaliative parents will get.
When I worked at Disney, I saw this kid pour melted ice cream on a pigeon. Was super infuriating. I told off his parents hardcore. Didnt care if I got fired.
When I worked at Disney (liberty square) I saw a seagull swoop down and take a turkey leg from a kid that had been harassing them a few minutes earlier. That was so fun to watch.
I did. I had a parent say it was ok that their kid was failing because my class was “not entertaining enough”. I’m sure that’s why, and not the fact that the kid couldn’t read.
They can be this entitled because failing won’t get them held back. The lack of children getting left behind means education ends up embarrassing for everyone.
I seen a child maybe 4 years old at Petco holding a betta and shaking it violently. I yelled put that fish down now! In my most authoritarian preschool teacher voice. That kid placed the fish on the floor never taking his eyes off of me and backed away slowly. His parents? They left him to a crazed old lady yelling at him. Just up and walked quickly the other direction. I then said, congrats, you killed a fish and your parents left you. He ran off sobbing. Even the Petco employees just went about their business, not making eye contact with me or the child. For a 5'2 older woman I guess my angry voice is compelling. Hope I traumatized that kid into thinking twice next time. I just couldn't believe the parents walked away like that.
I don’t know how you kept your composure for those parents… it would be so hard to not say “You know one of the earliest signs of a psychopath is children torturing and hurting animals? Your kids clearly has no empathy”
Nah, the dad was horrified by it and issued an apology. Apparently the kid is autistic, ADHD, and epileptic and went with a grandparents and another caretaker on this day. He had gone tons of times before never with an issue. That being said, the zoo may still need to consider banning him simply for liability purposes.
Watching the way he moves and doesn’t engage with the adult, I believe this kid is disabled and exhibiting elopement behavior. My kid would absolutely do the same thing, and not understand at all why he shouldn’t. His poor parents were probably terrified and mortified, and they are probably constantly weighing the risk of taking him places with the desire to give him as typical a life as possible. I use an adaptive stroller for my son when we got to the zoo, because he would be dancing with the flamingoes in two seconds.
Southern ground hornbills are carnivorous and hunt mostly on the ground. Their food ranges from insects to small vertebrates.[3] Their nests are often found in high tree cavities or other shallow cavities, such as rock holes in cliff faces.[4] These birds are a long-lived species, having lifespans in the range of 50–60 years, and up to 70 in captivity.
I think the saddest part, regardless of how neurotypical or neurodivergent someone is, is that this child chose to be mean. I saw the exact same thing happening in person at a park in London. The mum was there, but said nothing. It’s possible to teach kindness and encourage treating nature with love and respect.
I would have agreed with you a couple of years ago, but my partners nephew is "level 3" autistic (I hate using the levels, but I am using it to communicate very high support needs).
His parents are legitimately very kind, patient people who really put a ton of effort in to trying to teach him and mold him. They have sought all the support our government offers and that they can afford.
I legitimately don't think he understands meanness and unkindness, and I don't think he understands other people's emotions. He's hitting puberty now and I am legitimately pretty concerned about the damage he can do in a teen/adult body without understanding consequences.
Genuinely. I think some parents do not believe that their neurodivergent child is still capable of learning and being taught lessons or be disciplined so they allow whatever they get into. It just means you have to go about teaching those things with a different approach and not refrain from teaching them all together.
What I can tell you is this… My best friend has been a teacher for over 40 years. Special education. Including sign language. Including running workshops. Mentoring new special education teachers.
She still loves teaching as much as she ever did. She does have a regular classroom now. But the one thing she used to tell me all the time was that children was special needs, developmental delays etc. Children who are neurodivergent etc.
The biggest thing holding them back nine out of 10 times were their parents. And it was for exactly the reason you stated.
They refused to believe the educator about what their child was actually accomplishing in the classroom. She used to explain what was happening. How well they were doing. How she got them to that point, and what the parents could/should be denied at home to supplement those gains.
Instead, the parents didn’t want to. The kids resisted. And so took the easy way out and convinced themselves that the teacher was exaggerating.
She said it was heartbreaking. Because so many of these children were capable of accomplishing so much more than they were eventually going to be able to accomplish… Because their parents didn’t want to put the work in.
Because it was hard. Because of course your child is not going to want to change things at home. If it is flipping hard. She never ever underestimated how difficult it could be. But she said that truly, 85 to 90% of her students were capable of much, much more than they were ever going to achieve… All because of their parents.
I am currently a teacher and it’s very interesting watching the child interactions and capabilities in the classroom with their peers, and how much it shifts when a parent is present
I’ve seen neurotypical parents on the lower end of the intelligence spectrum just seem to give up once their child is diagnosed. I’m honestly thankful my mom ignored my diagnosis and treated me like every other kid. It was a hard road socially but I think I’m better for it.
My partner and I are friends with this one family who have two lower needs adult autistic children, but they’ve coddled them their entire lives so they still live at home, don’t work, don’t go to college and are just in general lost causes even though they don’t have to be.
Exactly.
My youngest kid is 6 and non-verbal autistic. It takes a lot of time and patience to discipline her when she does something we don't like. But, because we did this from the moment we suspected autism, she's a very sweet kid who actually listens to us (as far as a 6 year old listens).
Even at her daycare (she goes to a special daycare for kids with all kind of disabilities) she's seen as one of the easier autistic kids because she is so sweet.
It takes a lot of energy out of my wife, me and the other kids (who are teens), but now the results start to pay off when you see how she is in public.
“Here is our family’s only statement and we wish to remain anonymous:
First we want to thank the zoo’s security staff (Particularly Jeff) for their prompt and professional help as well as fantastic follow up after the incident to make sure my son was ok.
We regret the incident that took place at the zoo yesterday. Our son is severely autistic, non verbal, and is also diagnosed with ADHD and epilepsy. Animals are his obsessions and The zoo is likely his most favorite place on earth. we as annual zoo pass holders visited dozens of times in his 13 years of life without incident.
While my wife and I were at work his caretaker and grandmother decided to take him for a nice day at the zoo, and as any parent of autism can attest, we were so grateful for the help. He had a great day without incident then at the very last moment and without warning he was able to break away from his grandmother and jumped into the exhibit with the hornbills. He proceeded to chase them for approximately 30 seconds or so as his grandmother figured out how to get into the exhibit to help him. She was eventually able to get him out with the help of some fellow zoo goers and security staff.
We are animal lovers and are relieved that the animals were not hurt during the incident. I have personally reached out to the director of operations of the zoo as of this morning to personally apologize and see if there is any way we can help or make amends. In the time since the videos were posted, i responded to one of them trying to explain the situation and have since received messages wishing harm and death upon my son and my family.
While we understand how upsetting it is, we do ask for some patience, empathy and understanding for our son. He adores animals and would never do serious harm to them. It’s apparent he didn’t fully understand his actions and his impulses took over. We don’t use this as justification, we just ask for some grace as we move forward to make things right.”
My only problem with the statement is the ending. How do you KNOW he wouldn't do serious harm to them? Having worked professionally with children with special needs for over a decade, they often act in unpredictable ways, even contrary to their typical behavior.
Fr as much as I want to be understanding of the kids mental disabilities. He’s nonverbal. There’s so much you essentially can never fully understand about him. You might think he’s not violent but he’s a ball of inside thoughts that never become words. Now sure he does seem to be swinging the stick above the birds to illicit reaction and not actually trying to hurt them. But that’s probably me just trying to hope he really is just an obsessed child who wanted to play with the birds. This is one of those situations where no amount of understanding and care can be given to the kid above the animals. Bare minimum this kid has to lose zoo privileges for the foreseeable future.
I say this with near certainty that this boy is special needs..i have a daughter around his age with autism and runs very similar ( tiptoe running ) and the way he dropped to the ground when the mother grabbed him..my daughter does the exact same thing when I go to grab her..i blame the parents for allowing him to get away from them and getting in there but sometimes it just takes a 3 second slip and the kid can get away from you if you don't have any help..I don't take my eyes off of my daughter in public
My friend’s son is autistic. He was a ROTTEN kid. Violent tantrums, screaming… She was so afraid that he was just an asshole as well as being autistic. They medicated him when he was 14 and it was like a light was switched on. He’s a lovely guy now: kind, thoughtful. Of course, he still has his issues but it always makes me hesitate when I see awful behaviour like this.
I mean, this kid might just be a dick. But you never know.
Regardless of autism, this kid was bullying that bird. Chasing it around with a stick? Thats not a kid that loves all animals. I’ve worked with very sweet autistic kids and they do love animals but they prefer to pet, love on them, and watch them rather than chase them with a stick.
My parents put me on a leash when I was a kid at the zoo. Yes, some kids on the spectrum are runners, but ultimately, it’s the parent who should be…oh idk…doing some parenting.
Not gunna lie. I was also on a leash when we went out in public. I actually loved it. I would pull and lean hard against it like I’m doing the Micheal Jackson lean in thriller.
That feels right. But keep in mind that we also didn't have videos of kids behaving badly because we weren't all carrying around a video camera in our pockets.
I read a lot of old newspapers. People like to say "these days" about a lot of things, but when you read about the past, you really see that people have always been people, and people have always done some really dumb shit.
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u/sipstea-bot Aug 26 '26
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