There's a reason why there are signs and flyers at Yellowstone National Park admonishing visitors to "Stay 75 Feet Away From Animals," much in the same vein that there's a reason why there are signs that say "Electrified Fence - Do Not Touch" or signs at beaches that read "Do Not Swim Without Lifeguard Present."
The reason? It's dangerous.
How much more do you need to know?
The problem is, we are a society of selfies and the selfish, of narcissists, of people who live by a mentality of "You're not going to tell me what to do."
And that's why a baby bison was put to death this week after two tourists literally picked up the animal at Yellowstone, put it in the back of their SUV because they thought it was too cold out for the animal, and took it to a ranger station. Park rangers immediately took the animal back to where the two men found it and tried valiantly over a period of days to reunite the animal with its mother and with its herd. Instead, the calf was shunned.
"Interference by people can cause mothers to reject their offspring," the Park Service wrote in a statement. "In this case, park rangers tried repeatedly to reunite the newborn bison calf with the herd. These efforts failed. The bison calf was later euthanized because it was abandoned and causing a dangerous situation by continually approaching people and cars along the roadway."
This wasn't about good intentions gone wrong. This was about common sense, and a lack thereof. Does anybody really need a sign to understand that wildlife - hang on, mind-blowing concept coming here - is wild? What part of that is so difficult to understand?
These tourists, a father and son, were told by other tourists nearby not to touch the calf. Rob Heusevelet, serving as a chaperone for his child as part of a class field trip, was quoted by the East Idaho News as saying the men "didn't care" when told by several bystanders to remove the baby from the car. "They sincerely thought they were doing a service and helping that calf by trying to save it from the cold," Heusevelet said.
Wow.
News flash: Bison, elk, deer, bears and a whole lot of other animals live in far different environs than Yellowstone Park and survive a lot harsher days than 39-degree weather. And if it sounds like I'm bashing the two tourists, well, I have no tolerance for stupidity and/or a lack of common sense.
It's the same thing with the idiots who reach out and touch ancient artifacts in a museum, not realizing even a smidgen of oil and dirt from a finger could damage it. Or the girl who took the selfie at Auschwitz, posing and smiling as if she was standing at the main entrance to Disney World and not one of the most horrific places on earth.
Have we no common sense anymore? Do we not have an internal filter that kicks in to prevent us from making stupid mistakes in the face of repeated warnings? Or is all that overshadowed by this aforementioned "You can't tell me what to do" thinking?
As much as some people display that attitude, as much as some people want to be free spirits and not be bound by rubrics and guidelines, there is, nonetheless, value to following the rules. Hard to believe but there is a method to the so-called madness.
And this was one of those times where a tragedy could have been avoided by simple common sense.
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