Florida police tell people to stop taking selfies with ‘depressed’ black bear

Midnight@slrpnk.net to Not The Onion@lemmy.world – 393 points –
Florida police tell people to stop taking selfies with ‘depressed’ black bear
theguardian.com
47

DEER DIERY

THING ARE RELLY LOOKING UP FOR ONSE

A NUMBER OF PEPLE HAVE STOPD BY TO SEE ME AND TAKE PICHRS FOR THE MEMRIES

MAYBE I WAS RONG ABOUT LIFE

MAYBE I WAS RONG ABOUT PEPLE

I THINK ILL LIVE

  • BARE

Bear: am I a joke to you people!?

People: 📸

Bear: yep 🥺

“Onlookers were trying to take selfies with the bear and he’s clearly not in the mood for pictures. The bear has shown signs of severe stress,” the post said.

It described the large male bear as “stressed, depressed, lemon zest” and urged the public not to approach a black bear at any time, “especially those that are showing aggression like this big fella”.

How are we supposed to take this seriously when they make jokes?

Because it's possible to joke about something while still treating it seriously? Acknowledging that the bear is relatable, and that that's kind of funny, isn't incompatible with urging people to respect its boundaries.

I was really confused by that… wtf.. Lemon Zest?

Sometimes humor just makes it easier to communicate, it can be a useful tool. For example, look at Ted Lasso, his whole thing is that he's a leader who uses humor and empathy as his primary leadership tools. I know this is a fictional character, but those are real techniques, so I think this point still holds.

Which of these messages would be more effective on a sign:

Gee golly gosh folksies, don't toucha tha beara! Silly gooses, bear can be dangerous!

vs

This thing will rip your fucking body to shreds on a whim. Life isn't Disney - GET THE FUCK BACK OR REGRET IT FOREVER

On the bright side, this is a self-solving problem.

Yeah, but when the poor boy chomps down on some dumbass with a cell phone that whole community's going to want it dead. :(

Technically speaking it’s still a self-solving problem in that case also.

But you are correct. The human is the most dangerous animal on the planet.

I'm patiently waiting for the "Find Out" follow up story

Darwin works in many mysterious/logical ways.

Last month Ron DeSantis, the state’s rightwing Republican governor, signed into law a controversial bill that allows the public to shoot and kill bears for a perceived threat to “a person, pet or dwelling”.

The legislation was drawn up by the Republican state congressman Jason Shoaf, a keen hunter according to his biography, who claimed in February that “bears high on crack” were breaking into people’s houses and “tearing them apart”.

At the time the Guardian was unable to find a single documented incident of any bear in Florida ingesting crack, and Shoaf did not return a request for clarification.

What planet do these people even live on?

There was that documentary about that bear going on a cocaïne fueled rampage, so I suppose crack makes sense.

Guess we should change the old saying to if it's brown lay down, if it's black put it on snap?

If it's brown, emeralds or topaz. If it's black, rubies or gold.

I always think of this when people fuck with bears:

https://youtu.be/7pJGjLp6cnk?si=-TAJyl-BvF2ozVik

I'm curious but I have to ask first: on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being fully traumatizing to watch, how bad is that video?

A friend once showed me a video of a woman being attacked by a shark and my god the screams were terrible

The bear is lucky to not meet drunk russian

That bear’s a roadside attraction in Florida. Ain’t nothing lucky about that.

For some reason, I feel like fighting a drunk Russian might be preferred over Florida.

Man, I just got used to the brits spelling it aluminium and now this?!

which was sitting beside a telegraph pole.

telegraph. tele-graph. graph.

How else would you spell it?

I think they're more concerned about the continued existence of telegraph infrastructure.

Right, thanks for that, it's quite unclear to me from their comment, even if I re-read it now. I thought it was a weird spelling we use or something.

In the UK, "telegraph pole" can refer to any overhead wire carrying pole like this (usually the wooden ones), which can be carrying electric or telephone connections. They still do to in a lot of rural areas.

The first time I saw an abandoned telegraph pole I thought a dust storm must have buried the landscape. Nope, they really used to run telegraph wires at eye level across the American West.

I wonder how much telegraph system could be set up before the authorities noticed. It would be fun if it was all just morse code. I mean like running wires from one house to another in a neighborhood, without it being noticed and clamped down upon.