3 Year old Child thrown into Crocodile Pit in UK

I’ve got a BBC News update on the youngster. He was attacked by one crocodile. I’ve heard crocodiles are really energetic, they attack quickly.

I hope the community are rallying around the parents of this little boy.

“Boy, 3, was attacked by crocodile at zoo”
Rachael McMenemy and Vinnie O'Dowd
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp9l2278m8no

The 3-year old child is now in a critical but stable condition. He will be in good hands at Addensbrooke:
https://www.cuh.nhs.uk/news/addenbrookes-helipad-to-operate-247/

https://www.belfastlive.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/boy-thrown-crocodile-pit-zoo-34161342

“The newspaper also reported the youngster may have avoided death or more severe harm because the creature that attacked him had been fed livestock offcuts, meaning it might not have identified the child as prey.

“The injured toddler's identity has not been made public. Cambridgeshire Constabulary confirmed in a statement: "A three-year-old boy from Cambridgeshire remains at Addenbrooke's hospital in a critical but stable condition following an incident at Johnsons of Old Hurst.

As a mother, hearing the crocs are fed livestock offcuts wouldn't reassure me at all. You can't predict what an animal will do in my opinion (I'm not being critical of animals !! I'm a vegetarian).

Not like today when futures are more uncertain than ever, more and more jobs are being displaced and the cost of living soars. All this unfolds against the backdrop of climate change.

The question isn't why people are having fewer children, it's why they bother to have any at all.

If this is the best you can do, I think you should take your own advice.

I know of a few couples and single parents who have children, some have more than one, and they haven't worked for many years, if ever.

People who know how to play the system are just fine raising kids, getting a home, sending the kids through school and further education. They don't even need to work to achieve this.

It's only expensive if you are an absolute mug who works their butt off so you can pay tax to fund the lifestyles of those who are smart enough to know how to play the game properly.

Seriously if you think that having a kid in Ireland is "expensive" then you'll need to explain how thousands of people do exactly that without ever needing to work at all.

Excellent point. Like you, I know plenty as well like you describe. And they still manage their 2 weeks in Spain every year, while the muggin workers can just about afford a weeks' camping in Kerry.

It’s clear the poster means a risk assessment of the dangers the man might pose to the public in a shared space with excited children and dangerous animals. How could the child’s parents be expected to know anything about that?

Obviously for the child and their family, recovery is the main issue now, but more generally, surely prevention should be society’s main concern? It’s the only practical thing we can do. We can’t turn back the clock - but what we can do is put pressure on government and health services to stop there being more such incidents.

If the assumption is just that it couldn’t have been avoided, then what’s to stop something similar happening again? This is not even the first such event. Jonty Bravery had a record of violence, yet he was allowed to be in a position to throw a small child over the Tate Modern balcony. That child, now a late teen, is still suffering enormously and will never have a normal life. Why were lessons not learned from that incident? Perhaps this child would now be safe if they had been.

I never said it was easy.

I'm currently raising two young children, I know my own circumstances and I'm aware of the circumstances of many other parents.

Raising children was never easy; anybody expecting it to be hasn't being living in reality.

My own mother raised 7 children, which at the time wasn't much above average. This was before automatic washing machine, dishwashers, central heating, well insulated houses. My father worked a 40 hr week and ran a small dairy farm; he's average work week was about 80 hrs.

My generation and people born after me have a level of comfort unimaginable to my granfather's generation (born in 1887) not to mention the generations before. Think how much leisure time we have compared to that generation?

It seems a cohort are suing that time to ruminate about how tough they have AND how much worse it might get.

The fear and anxiety around climate change is pathetic. Humans since we crawled out of Africa have adapted, survived and used our rational brains to figure out our problems.

We all have ancestors who survived much much worse.

Let's just look at 100 years of natural disasters, if we could look back 300000 years things would be much much more challenging.

https://ourworldindata.org/natural-disasters#death-rates-from-disasters-have-fallen-over-the-last-century

We have it so so bad, let just down tools and give up.

Every environment poses unique risks. It’s well known kids on farms are at risk of tractors; and rural country roads pose a hazard for drivers and their child passengers. Your home is statistically where the majority of childhood injuries and accidents happen.

The risk assessment was done by the Huntingdonshire District Council, who looked at potential hazards. A spokesperson said: "Its licence was renewed in 2024 following the statutory inspection and approval process. Public safety is a fundamental consideration in the licensing regime, including the suitability of animal enclosures and visitor barriers," ….

I earlier put up a BBC link. Here it is again:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp9l2278m8no

"It said its environmental health team was in touch with the zoo managers and would "consider whether any further inspection or follow-up action is required". [Huntingdonshire District Counci spokesperson]

Crocodiles go into a spin like a corkscrew, known as the death roll, to subdue their prey. They clamp on to their target with their jaws...