Yellowstone Bison Calf Is Euthanized After Riding in Tourists’ S.U.V. Why? Tragic story and idiotic thing to do! Read it here. Who thinks the tourist should be fined? State your mind here. I personally think they should be heftier so no one will make the mistake of doing that again..
I have two trains of thought here. First, the tourists were acting out of kindness, even as the kindness was wrapped in ignorance and stupidity. They should be fined, which they were for the violation. However, the parks department should have also fined them for the cost of the entire operation, including the putting down of the animal. Secondly, the whole milieu of having "wild" animals in such close proximity to human beings is a non starter. The national parks system as a whole, is really a dismal failure if one considers that its primary mission is to preserve a wild state, but then it allows millions of asinine selfie taking idiots into the parks annually. IMHO, the parks and "nature preserves" cannot totally coexist as the simple presence of modern man (with vehicles, cameras, garbage, whatever) already damages the natural setting. Putting up tiny signs at entrances "warning" tourists not to interact with the animals is about as effective as saying "don't smoke." People are going to ignore the signs when they see cute fuzzy bears. IMHO, putting up large pictures of dead tourists who were mauled and eaten by bears or gored by buffalo would do a much better job. Also, the fines of about $100 bucks is too lame. Make each incident fined at $10,000 with cost of investigation and parks personnel use added on. Just look at these idiots. The adults; who should know better, are actually laughing and they think it's a joke:
