Here's my Public Service Announcement of the Week for tourists. It's free by the way.
Dear Tourists,
Yellowstone National Park - or any other area open to the public that is also home to wildlife - is not a freakin' petting zoo at the County Fair. So stop trying to touch or feed or take a photo or, worse, a selfie, next to a bison or a bear!
Love, Richie
See, it's that time of year again. Yellowstone and our other great national parks are about to be overrun by visitors who have been aching to travel for two-plus years.
That's a good thing. Travel and tourism is always a good thing.
Yet the stupidity of some of these people is a bad thing. A very bad thing. And it can't just be blamed on the current state of events in the world. That would be low-hanging fruit, given the enormity of the amount of existing idiocy.
I am reminded of that after a story circulated on social media this week about a drunken man who wanted one last hurrah before going to rehab. So he decided, 'Hey, it would be great to taunt this bison here at Yellowstone.' He was summarily sentenced to 130 days in jail which, you know, will sober you right up.
Now, full disclosure - that story was from nearly four years ago and why it's making the rounds again on social media I have no idea but, hey, that's the internet.
But this ridiculous behavior still exists. Heck, it was just last year that a woman tried to get too close to a bison and suffered the consequences (note the language in this video):
Another example - a woman sentenced to four days in jail last year for getting too close to a bear and her cubs. At the sentencing, U.S. attorney Bob Murray said: "Approaching a sow grizzly with cubs is absolutely foolish. Here, pure luck is why (the woman) is a criminal defendant and not a mauled tourist."
It's funny, when I tell people I live in New York they automatically think New York City. I live close to The City, less than 90 minutes by train, but my house is very rural in the Hudson Valley area. We've had foxes, owls, eagles, hawks, coyotes, a mountain lion, even an emu once - a darn emu! - in our backyard at various times. And we had a bear cub once. I watched from afar inside the house because, well, I'm not the village idiot. I know you shouldn't feed them, for starters, and I know that if Baby Bear is around, Mama Bear is lurking.
They kind of take that 'Don't mess with my kid' thing seriously.
And so should tourists.
This isn't a game. Technology is such these days that you can stay a reasonable distance away from wildlife and still capture great photos or videos to document your visit.
And for the love of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, have you not learned in 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 years on earth that a male bison can weigh 2,000 pounds, throw you around like a rag doll or, worse, gore you with those horns?
More importantly, however, our wildlife is precious. Don't mess with it. Don't touch, don't feed. Respect the laws of nature. If you don't, those same laws could have tragic consequences.
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