Canis lupus hominis

Posted in Absolute Piffle | 14 Comments

14 Responses

1. on September 14, 2010 at 10:44 pm Heather Smith

   I think you can partially tame a wolf or a lion, especially if you live in it’s environment, not it in ours. But not a bear.

   Bears are not social animals. At times, bears might tolerate each other at garbage dumps, or salmon runs, but they are not a herd animal.

   Bears don’t make good pets. And people shouldn’t feed wild bears.

   They are not teddybears.

   
   
   • on September 15, 2010 at 5:33 am Bridget

     “—they are not a herd animal.”

     That’s right. And that is why Retrieverman in his post calls them with a human term “moody” animals.

     
     
2. on September 14, 2010 at 10:49 pm Heather Smith

   How many of you would take a job wearing an attack suit as an agitator at schutzhund trails, cajones or not?

   
   
   • on September 15, 2010 at 5:46 am labpack

     Heather, probably the job suits splendidly a person with cajones and lost marbles… :D

     
     
3. on September 15, 2010 at 12:27 pm Lane Batot

   CAN’T tame a bear? Anyone ever heard of Bart the Bear? Seen the Russian bears in circuses? Read anything about people who have rescued cubs and hand-reared them? Of course you can tame a bear–you can tame lots of animals that aren’t naturally very social–people do it all the time!…..WHAAAA? Man in a suit? You mean this wasn’t a real Sasquatch/Bigfoot???? Dang–it WAS a real looking suit–I terrorized several communities with one much shabbier than this one. Reminds me of one of my favorite Paul Harvey stories(I think that’s where I heard it….)–this family touring in the Southwest went to an outside Dinosaur park featuring life-sized statues of dinosaurs, and after going through it they were infuriated and demanded their money back. Why? Because the dinosaurs weren’t REAL……”Good Day!”

   
   
   • on September 15, 2010 at 2:24 pm Heather Smith

     Lane, prehaps we mean different things when we use the word “tame”?

     I use the word meaning: They aren’t tame enough to make good pets. Bears do not make good pets.

     By “not tame” I mean: Not tame enough to be trusted in domestic settings.

     I do agree that they can sometimes, with the right upbring, the right training, and a proper type of owner for them, be tame enough to be used in films – but bears do not make good pets.

     Bears are not dogs, they are not domestic animals. If you call bears “tame” then you must call all species tame.

     What species would you call less tame than bears?

     
     
4. on September 15, 2010 at 4:56 pm Lane Batot

   Bears as pets? Depends on what a person wants in a “pet”–some people who have raised bears from cubs, and lived in wilderness settings, and let the bears come and go as they pleased, found them to be great friends, and quite tame and handlable(Grizzly Adams, for instance, trained some of his bears to be pack animals, for goodness sakes!). Many domestic animals not properly socialized make TERRIBLE pets! Bears are certainly as friendly and affable(with good treatment) as lions or wolves, depends on the individual animal, the situation, and the person involved. I bet Doug Seuss considered his Bart a big pet(remember, the movie people have to live with these guys all year, and have to forge remarkable relationships with them, and, the good ones, at least, have “wild” animals that are better behaved and trained than most peoples’ dogs are!). But as “pets” for the average Joe–certainly not, of course! Doesn’t mean it can’t be done with someone willing to put in the time and effort. Less tamable than a bear? How about an Alligator?–yet there are instances where people have tamed and trained Alligators to an amazing degree. Over time, I have come to the conclusion that most animals, with the right REALISTIC and understanding and humane people, can be tamed or trained to some degree–quite amazing and wonderful when you think about it–except maybe Sasquatch–I think Harry Henderson was the exception! Just look at the unprovoked aggression the one in this film clip exhibits! That bear was minding his own business–all he was doing was defending himself from that big, hairy, mean old ape! Speaking of tame bears, that one had to be purty tame to put up with THAT!

   
   
   • on September 15, 2010 at 6:09 pm Heather Smith

     Maybe he was neutered young, or like some nasty tempered show dogs, given drugs first?

     Tell you what, if we are ever in the same camp let’s make this deal: I’ll agree to fend off any real Sasquatches that come into camp, if you will agree to fend off the bears, okay?

     When I think of ‘tame’ bears, I think of Timothy Treadwell, did you see that movie about him – talk about a jawdropper!

     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Treadwell

     It reminds me of a show during shark week where this guy is saying something about how sharks get a bad rap and they aren’t mean – and then this shark comes up and takes off his leg below the knee! So much for authorities saying things are safe.

     Maybe I know how you feel, I use to have a thing for the big cats. I had their photos on the wall. I still admire them, but I see them more clearly now for what they are.

     
     
5. on September 16, 2010 at 8:30 am Lane Batot

   DEAL!!! I’d MUCH rather fend off wild bears than a nut in a gorilla suit! Those guys are EXTREMELY disturbed!!! Yes, there are certainly degrees of tameness–what one person considers tame, another may not! To me, if it does not run away, or outright attack you, and is tolerant or even somewhat handleable, I consider that “tame”, but that loose definition certainly is not necessarily in the “suitable pet” category!

   
   
6. on September 17, 2010 at 1:01 am Heather Smith

   Lane, I said “real Sasquatches”.

   About the “nut in the gorilla suit” being “EXTREMELY disturbed”, didn’t you just comment on this post about Sasquatches:

   “Man in a suit? . . . I terrorize several communities with one much shabbier than this one”.

   Now please explain how a man in a gorilla suit is EXTREMELY disturbed, but a man terrorizing several communities in a Sasquatch suit is – well, you.

   I do read your comments, but I often read them on a small screen, it would be easier for me to read them if you hit “enter” a couple of times during your loner comments.

   
   
   • on September 17, 2010 at 1:27 am Heather Smith

     sorry, left outthe “g” in “longer”

     
     
7. on September 17, 2010 at 8:48 am Lane Batot

   Heather! Ha! I was making a tongue-in-cheek deprecating remark about my own infamous teenage attempts at Bigfoot(Sasquatch, Yeti, Alma, Gigantopithecus, whatever…) hoaxing, a very fascinating if high risk and dangerous sport!And I was purty successful–most of the time…. Things didn’t always go as well as I planned, and I learned most definetely why predators usually target the old, the young, and the weak–terrified, panicky people can be extremely dangerous critters! Yeah, I was a disturbed youth(but I had fun–the stories I can tell from Bigfoot’s perspective!!). So okay, you handle the REAL Sasquatches(wink, wink), and I’ll take the bears–it’s still a deal! Despite my seeming scepticism about there being REAL Sasquatches(I really truly wish there were, though, and maintain thr tiniest, miniscule, microscopic hope that deep deep in the Himalayas, or the Pacific Northwest of North America, or some remote forest in Siberia, some researcher will make us all eat crow….) I always thought it would be hilarious if a REAL Bigfoot came up on someone in a gorilla suit staging a hoax, and gave them an education! Unless I was the one in the gorilla suit–wouldn’t want that……

   
   
   • on September 17, 2010 at 10:59 am Heather Smith

     Lane, I bet you did learn very important things about how people view wild animals and strange things. How many of them guessed you were a guy in a suit? Or do scared people not hang around to find out?

     
     
8. on September 17, 2010 at 12:57 pm Lane Batot

   Do you have any idea how dangerous it is getting me going telling my old tales? At least on the computer, you can just shut me off….. Most of the people I perpetrated Bigfoot sightings on I actually knew, or were even related to me, so I eventually let them in on it, and got good feedback(and sometimes a sock or slap or two…) on the “sighting” I did(sigh…cruel, unthinking, callous teenagers…) scare the crapola out of some random victims at times, who, for all I know STILL believe they saw a Sasquatch!(Sorry guys, and let me apologize, too, to the dedicated actual Bigfoot researchers out there….) ONLY ONE reacted in any way other than fear and instant and olympic quality retreat! That one was a HUGE lumberman that came AFTER me(chased me through a swamp and a cornfield and almost caught my ass! It was like a perverse reverse of the original “Planet Of The Apes” movie!) After that, I carefully began my predatory selection of only the young, old, and weak! Of the feedback I got, my size and appearance were almost always highly exagerrated–if there are actual Sasquatches, I wouldn’t be suprised if they were actually only about four feet tall! People usually exagerrated my aggression, too, but truthfully, if they ran, I often couldn’t resist chasing them! Hey, it is a deep seated predatory instinct–when confronted with a large, potentially dangerous predator(or ANY animal!), don’t act like prey! Despite my efforts to carefully select time and place and have things all to my advantage(especially if things didn’t go as planned), it is still something of a miracle, I think, in the gun-toting South, that I never got drilled full of holes! I shudder nowadays when I think back on some of my pranks(both in a homemade gorilla suit, and out!!!!)…..

   
   

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