47 Comments
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Shrinking Violet's avatar

This is horrible. Really Not funny, despite the witty way the story is presented. Animals who cannot be kept humanely in captivity should not be kept in captivity at all.

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Hannah Rose Williams's avatar

I agree, but apparently these ones also can't be released.

It's like a trolley problem: a manatee dies no matter what, but if you flip the lever, it becomes your fault!

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The Philosopher King's avatar

Why not just give the females an abortion if they get pregnant? Oh wait, that’s reserved for humans.

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Hannah Rose Williams's avatar

Lol it is funny how that would create similar uproar. The underlying sentiment really seems to be "humans deserve to die"

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The Philosopher King's avatar

Gotta worship Moloch somehow.

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Nathaniel Richards's avatar

Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear.

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The Mad Naturalist's avatar

Doublethink at its finest.

Even if it's a bad idea to liberate them, why can't these people give them an actual dignified life?, this world is so stupid.

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Hannah Rose Williams's avatar

I think I would prefer to let nature take its course than involve humans in this lol

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Jack Everly's avatar

Well said, both of you. It's our own arrogance that prevents Nature taking its course, however. For if we can't solve the problems we create what does say about our position at the top of the totem pole–word choice very much so intended.

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Carbon Nation's avatar

I hope mote finds a BIG brother for Buffet.

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Hannah Rose Williams's avatar

That could work!

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Jack Everly's avatar

LOL

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Joseph L. Wiess's avatar

The laws are fing stupid. How about we stop capturing marine animals for display? How about we release them all back into the wild?

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Hannah Rose Williams's avatar

I think these manatees needed rescue and then weren't expected to survive on their own. But the way I see it, it's better to let the manatee's death be nature's fault than to intervene and make it your fault.

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Jack Everly's avatar

The pic...the one with the "X"...OMG what an article this was. This is all the investigative journalism I need this days. Even if I don't agree 100% with some of the conclusions as presented here. Bravo. Well done! Thanks to Demi for pointing me here...

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Hannah Rose Williams's avatar

Thank you for sharing my pain T_T

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Jack Everly's avatar

You're very welcome. I'm impressed with the way you presented the tale. I would've gone all out humor-commando, guns a' blazin', but you rose above and remained professional. Respect!

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Ryan Williams's avatar

Dammit! Florida man!

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Steve Taylor's avatar

So sad but probably the way most degenerate Government officials would like to shuffle of this mortal coil.

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Hannah Rose Williams's avatar

They were simply doing unto others

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Jweli's avatar

Ughhhhh

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Random Musings and History's avatar

Can manatees be sterilized? Then bringing females into their lair wouldn't be anywhere near as bad, right?

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Hannah Rose Williams's avatar

A veterinarian above, @drtaraslatton, states that nobody is an expert at manatee castration and it's very hars to anesthetize large marine animals.

It's a real pickle.

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Random Musings and History's avatar

Create special sex dolls for manatees, then?

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Hannah Rose Williams's avatar

Introduce them to manga

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Jack Everly's avatar

"pickle..." Tee-hee.

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Fell Choice's avatar

Long ago in another life, I worked in a vivarium, which is a place where we keep live animals for medical research. My job took me into the hypertensive rat colony, which at that time had about 30,000 rat inhabitants. As part of my training, I was taught to weigh each male rat before putting it in a cage with other male rats. Because my superiors knew to within a couple of ounces how much male rat could be in how many cubic feet of cage before the big ones began to sodomize the small ones to death.

Oh, I’m trying to be a 2020s’s kind of guy, but I can’t help applying that lesson to my understanding of certain things in life.

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Hannah Rose Williams's avatar

What a harrowing thought lol

Thank you for sharing, for reals

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Prodigal's avatar

Brilliant, Hannah! And infuriating.

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s_e_t_h's avatar

Manatees are pests, but W/E. Why not neuter the poor bastage?

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Hannah Rose Williams's avatar

Apparently that's easier said than done, as a vet in the comments here explained. I am okay with just letting them die out naturally in the wild if this is the alternative lol

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Jon Midget's avatar

The foundation of this really horrific story is an inability to grasp a very simple truth: animals are not human beings. Some animals do poorly in captivity, but others don’t care. I’m reminded of the Free Willy fiasco—a $40 million fiasco that ended with a dead orca, all because humans couldn’t accept that an orca treated well in captivity was perfectly fine.

There is nothing—NOTHING inherently bad about manatees mating and giving birth in captivity.

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Visceral Fat's avatar

The democrats have a new mascot.

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