Exchange in the park

[urbpan]

As I was walking the dogs back home through the park this morning, I caught up to a group of teenage boys, two of whom were throwing rocks at the ducks in the river. I've encountered this before, and in the past reacted by screaming. I really need to keep my cool more often. As I approached, the boys were tired of their game, and sat on a bench. As I was passing, one boy gestured at my dogs and said

"Yo, thassa half-pit right there, right?"

I replied "They're both full pit. Please don't throw rocks at them, okay?"

Before my superego could get control of the situation, my id insisted on adding,

"Asswipes."

Comments

[ninthraven.livejournal.com]

You did not actually say "asswipes" out loud, did you?!

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

fuckers!! I KILL THEM.

i hope maggie barked at them.

[(Anonymous)]

just read some interesting work on this topic:

Melson, Gail F. Why the Wild Things Are: Animals in the Lives of Children. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 2001.

chapter 7, "victims and objects," discusses animal abuse by children.

[drocera.livejournal.com]

Last summer while visiting my sister, I came across some 7 or 8 year old boys with a batch of 2 or 3 week old kittens. They were carrying them in a bucket, and right before my eyes (though I don't suspect they knew I was watching) each took a kitten and started hurling it into the air as far as they could. I flipped out. Ran into the yard, snatched each kitten from their hands, told them they should be ashamed of themnselves, and took the kittens away. When I got back to my sister's house, I asked her if she knew this family down the street. She did, she knew the phone number, too, so I called, spoke to the mother, who said "oh yeah, they can be a bit rough, blah, blah...not really getting my point...so when I haung up, my sister and I snuck back down there and stole the mother cat, too.


I hate it when people don't instill the value of life into their children!

[by-steph.livejournal.com]

When we lived in Texas, we lived near a bayou with a lot of Muscovy ducks around. Our town was a bird sanctuary by city ordinance which made it illegal to harass birds. I would tell little asshat kids that were harassing the ducks that what they were doing was illegal and I would threaten to call the police on them.

There was one time as a kid that I didn't say anything in response to senseless destruction of life. I was at camp when some kids found this huge freshwater mussel. It was beautiful. They brought it back to camp and proceeded to bash it to pieces. I didn't say a word. I just stood there and felt sick. I suppose if I was a super hero, that would be my defining moment in my self-imposed mission to protect the world from litter and animal abuse.

[broken-angel.livejournal.com]

I get so worked up about things like that, that I can't keep my cool enough to convince them to change their ways.
The other day two people were walking ahead of me on the way home from class and one purposefully threw her tim hortons cup on the ground.
I yelled, "Hey! You dropped something!" and she and her friend glanced back and kept walking. I couldn't think of the right thing to say and I just ended up yelling, "PIG!" as I picked up her litter. So mature eh?

I need to prepare a lecture ahead of time for these situations.

[bellelvsbeast.livejournal.com]

YOU ROCK!!! ;)