2.
How About That!
Monkeys Beat The Trainer....With His Own Stick
A street performer in Sizhou, in eastern China got the taste of his own medicine when he beat one of his monkeys with a stick for refusing to ride a bicycle.
He was performing a road show with 3 of his monkeys and flew into a raze when one of them refused to perform the trick. He started beating the monkey and just then the other two decided to defend their mate.
Although tied to the man with ropes attached to their collars, the monkeys decided to fight back. One of the trio snatched up his stick and began beating the trainer on the head until he broke the stick. Another one
bit him and pulled out handfuls of his hair, in full view of the shocked spectators. Another one pulled on his ears till they bled.
He was performing a road show with 3 of his monkeys and flew into a raze when one of them refused to perform the trick. He started beating the monkey and just then the other two decided to defend their mate.
Although tied to the man with ropes attached to their collars, the monkeys decided to fight back. One of the trio snatched up his stick and began beating the trainer on the head until he broke the stick. Another one
bit him and pulled out handfuls of his hair, in full view of the shocked spectators. Another one pulled on his ears till they bled.

As the police arrived on the scene, the dazed trainer told his audience: "They may have built up some feelings of hatred towards me."
Local police registered a case of animal cruelty (against the man of course) and confiscated the monkeys from the man.
Performances with monkeys are a common sight in markets and squares in China, but the treatment of the animals is frequently criticized by animal rights organisations.
This incident, reported in the press worldwide in December 2008, brings up another interesting topic of change in human-animal relationship, noticed recently by world's leading ethologists (specialists in animal behaviour).
Local police registered a case of animal cruelty (against the man of course) and confiscated the monkeys from the man.
Performances with monkeys are a common sight in markets and squares in China, but the treatment of the animals is frequently criticized by animal rights organisations.
This incident, reported in the press worldwide in December 2008, brings up another interesting topic of change in human-animal relationship, noticed recently by world's leading ethologists (specialists in animal behaviour).
They believe that a critical point has been crossed and animals are beginning to snap back. After centuries of being eaten, evicted, subjected to vivisection, killed for fun, worn as hats and made to ride bicycles in circuses, something is causing them to turn on us. And it is being taken seriously enough by scientists that it has earned its own acronym: HAC -human-animal conflict.
In an article on this disquieting pattern of animal behavior, Will Storr mentions that it's happening everywhere. Authorities in America and Canada are alarmed at the increase in attacks on humans by mountain lions, cougars, foxes and wolves. Romania and Colombia have seen a rise in bear maulings. In Mexico, in just the past few months, there's been a spate of deadly shark attacks with The LA Times reporting that, "the worldwide rate in recent years is double the average of the previous 50." America and Sierra Leone have witnessed assaults and killings by chimps who, according to New Scientist, "almost never attack people." In Uganda, they have started killing children by biting off their limbs then disemboweling them.
There has been a surge in wolf attacks in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Russia and France. In Australia, there has been a run of dingo killings, and crocodile violence is up. In Beijing, injuries from cats and dogs have swelled by 34%, year-on-year. In America, the number of humans killed by pet dogs has increased sharply since 2000. In Australia, dog attacks are up 20%. In Britain, nearly 4,000 people needed hospital treatment for dog bites in 2007, a figure that has doubled in the past 4 years. In Bombay, petrified residents are being slaughtered in ever-increasing numbers by leopards. J C Daniel, a leopard specialist, comments, "We have to study why the animal is coming out. It never came out before." In Edinburgh, in June, there was a string of bizarre fox attacks - a pensioner was among the victims. In Singapore, residents have been being terrorized by packs of macaques. Sharon Chan, a national parks official, told reporters, "It's a very weird situation."
In an article on this disquieting pattern of animal behavior, Will Storr mentions that it's happening everywhere. Authorities in America and Canada are alarmed at the increase in attacks on humans by mountain lions, cougars, foxes and wolves. Romania and Colombia have seen a rise in bear maulings. In Mexico, in just the past few months, there's been a spate of deadly shark attacks with The LA Times reporting that, "the worldwide rate in recent years is double the average of the previous 50." America and Sierra Leone have witnessed assaults and killings by chimps who, according to New Scientist, "almost never attack people." In Uganda, they have started killing children by biting off their limbs then disemboweling them.
There has been a surge in wolf attacks in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Russia and France. In Australia, there has been a run of dingo killings, and crocodile violence is up. In Beijing, injuries from cats and dogs have swelled by 34%, year-on-year. In America, the number of humans killed by pet dogs has increased sharply since 2000. In Australia, dog attacks are up 20%. In Britain, nearly 4,000 people needed hospital treatment for dog bites in 2007, a figure that has doubled in the past 4 years. In Bombay, petrified residents are being slaughtered in ever-increasing numbers by leopards. J C Daniel, a leopard specialist, comments, "We have to study why the animal is coming out. It never came out before." In Edinburgh, in June, there was a string of bizarre fox attacks - a pensioner was among the victims. In Singapore, residents have been being terrorized by packs of macaques. Sharon Chan, a national parks official, told reporters, "It's a very weird situation."
All over Africa, India and parts of southeast Asia, elephants have started attacking humans in unprecedented numbers. Not just killing - they're rampaging through villages and stomping crops, terrorizing local populations in any way they can. "What's happening today is extraordinary," Dr Gay Bradshaw, a world authority on elephants, told reporters in 2006. "Where for centuries humans and elephants lived in relatively peaceful coexistence, there is now hostility and violence. When you see reports of elephants running into crops or attacking people, they're highly stressed. And there are multiple stressors - violence, lack of food, lack of water; their families are being broken up; their society is collapsing. All of these things are human-derived." Bradshaw is the director of the Kerulos Centre for Animal Psychology and Trauma Recovery, in Oregon.
Bradshaw describes the elephants as being "under siege" from the locals. But the violence against humans has increased so suddenly, and reached such levels, that these traditional factors aren't thought to be sufficient to explain it. Bradshaw and her colleagues now think that there's been a massive, pan-species psychological collapse throughout the world's pachyderms. In essence, we're witnessing the dysfunctional shenanigans of a generation of depraved elephants. These are individuals who have become psychologically fractured after being orphaned at a developmentally delicate age or are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after watching their families being slaughtered.
Bradshaw describes the elephants as being "under siege" from the locals. But the violence against humans has increased so suddenly, and reached such levels, that these traditional factors aren't thought to be sufficient to explain it. Bradshaw and her colleagues now think that there's been a massive, pan-species psychological collapse throughout the world's pachyderms. In essence, we're witnessing the dysfunctional shenanigans of a generation of depraved elephants. These are individuals who have become psychologically fractured after being orphaned at a developmentally delicate age or are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after watching their families being slaughtered.
The numbers are disturbing enough, but the menacing changes in behaviour are especially worrying to scientists. In Australia, the biologist Dr Scoresby Shepherd - who pointed out that in areas where shark attacks used to happen every 3 - 4 decades, they are now taking place at least once a year - has suggested that sharks are switching their prey to humans. In Los Angeles, Professor Lee Fitzhugh has come to the same conclusion about mountain lions. In San Francisco, a spate of sea lion assaults lead one local to comment, "I've been swimming here for 70 years and nothing like this has happened before." In Cameroon, for the first time, gorillas have been throwing bits of tree at humans. They're using weapons against us.
Any sane person might decide that this theory, which posits that beasts are working in concert to take revenge on humans, is insane. But in the regions where the most research into HAC is being carried out, scientists have concluded that revenge for our myriad barbarities could indeed be a motive.
According to Gay Bradshaw, we shouldn't be asking why they're turning on us. “A more reasonable question would be, why aren't they attacking us more? Animals have the same capacity that we do, in terms of emotions and what we consider to be high-mindedness and moral integrity. In fact, it may be argued they have more, because they haven't done to us what we've done to them. That's a sobering thought. It's amazing that all the animals are as benign as they are. Their restraint is amazing. Why aren't they picking up guns?”
Any sane person might decide that this theory, which posits that beasts are working in concert to take revenge on humans, is insane. But in the regions where the most research into HAC is being carried out, scientists have concluded that revenge for our myriad barbarities could indeed be a motive.
According to Gay Bradshaw, we shouldn't be asking why they're turning on us. “A more reasonable question would be, why aren't they attacking us more? Animals have the same capacity that we do, in terms of emotions and what we consider to be high-mindedness and moral integrity. In fact, it may be argued they have more, because they haven't done to us what we've done to them. That's a sobering thought. It's amazing that all the animals are as benign as they are. Their restraint is amazing. Why aren't they picking up guns?”