Why don't people learn?

In the last week I have read news accounts of:

• A man killed by his two dogs, which had attacked people before but he was able to convince the courts to let him keep them.
• A woman killed while working with a killer whale that had previously killed two people.
• A man killed by his pet bull (yes, a pet bull) that had broken his ribs the previous year.
• A four year old girl killed by a family dog one week after the other family dog had been taken away for biting an adult.

In the case of the dogs they were breeds known to be aggressive. Bulls are by nature both very large and aggressive. And of course killer whales are both very large and have the word KILLER in their name!

If a person wants to keep a large and dangerous animal as a pet that is certainly their privilege. But often these animals kill or maim others. Certainly it wasn't the four year old girls decision that killed her, it was her parents decision to keep the dog that killed her. The man who was killed by his own dogs went to court and fought to keep them after they had attacked others.

So while it is certainly within the rights of somebody to own a large and dangerous animal it is rarely *wise* to own such an animal, and it is often dangerous to others because the owners do not take proper precautions to ensure that others are not injured.

Every year I see these reports of people's pets attacking others and each year I hope that maybe this year people will figure it out and make wiser decisions. So far I have been disappointed.

The impermanance of the internet

I was organizing my bookmarks today, something I have been meaning to do for some time. The task was somewhat simplified by the fact that about a third of the links no longer worked so could be deleted.

The internet is a wonderful tool to find information. Of course the most up to date information is from people trying to sell you something, but still there is a lot of information out there. It is rather sad to see how many of the pages disappear after only a year or two. Several of the links that no longer exist were to pages that held useful reference information. Information that is just as relevant today as it was a few years ago, but the person maintaining the website has moved on to other things and the information is now lost.

We live in a world of change, and the internet is just as impermanent as the other things in life. I am going to have to keep that in mind and make sure to keep a printed copy of useful information, not just a link to where it can be found.