A bounce house used to be the bee’s knees of kid birthday bashes, one that inflated young egos and insured attendance of party guests. But in the spirit of one-upping, a business in Madeira Beach offered parents and children of the Bay area a party gimmick that couldn’t be outdone: alligators for backyard swimming pools.
Oh! How the parents were interested and the children overjoyed! For $175, a handler and a couple of baby gators with mouths taped-shut would go to the home of the birthday boy or girl and take a dip as the ultimate party guest.
“I’m not afraid of alligators anymore,” a pool-soaked birthday girl said in a Bay News 9 video. As she talks about her previous fear of the ridged reptiles, she swims with her face inches away from a baby gator, petting its belly like it’s a puppy.
The summer of gator pool parties was a short one, with the Florida wildlife officials calling it off in October after the service was profiled on Good Morning America.
With too many awful accidental scenarios to play out, countless ‘it-all-happened-so-fast’ possibilities punctuated with gator teeth and underlined with a tail-whip, the flukes aren’t the only problem here.
Children should be afraid of alligators, because they are alligators. Getting comfortable with an animal because they’re in your swimming pool with its mouth taped-shut isn’t educational; it’s artificial.
Also, there’s no way chlorine, muriatic acid and algaecides is any good for gator skin. Parents should settle for throwing their kids underwhelming parties and gators should swim in the swamps.
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About 250 miles south to Deerfield Beach, Fla., a 32-year old man entered a contest at a reptile shop to win an ivory ball python for his friend.
The ivory ball python gets its name because of its color. Ball pythons are called such because when frightened, they curl into a ball. Their eyes are dark blue with red pupils. It’s easy to see why the prize was desirable.
Is it worth eating as many cockroaches as you can in four minutes? Archbold thought so. Closing out an evening of worm and cricket-eating, a bucket of discoid cockroaches was brought out for the final round.
After swallowing dozens of the 2-inch long critters, Archbold was declared the winner before throwing up and dying.
Finding someone willing to eat cockroaches doesn’t seem usual, but someone dying from eating cockroaches is even more unusual. Bug experts say roaches aren’t toxic, but Archbold’s reaction could have been an allergic one.
In America, eating bugs is on par with eating shrimp heads, rare and uncouth. But bugs are traditional food in cultures of Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Of course, eating an insect for food is different than bolting them in a gross-out competition. But the conclusion for many readers following the story’s release was all too easy: Serves him right. It doesn’t. A 32 year old lost his life, a friend lost his outrageous pal and two little girls lost their dad.
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The Bay’s Mystery Monkey has been hard to miss, making appearances in Pasco, Clearwater, Tampa, south to the pink streets in Pinellas Point.
The male macaque, believed to be casted out of a colony near Ocala has eluded Florida wildlife officials since 2009. He’s also developed a super-animal resistance to tranquilizer darts: they don’t affect him.
Through the years, people have called the Florida wildlife officials to report monkey sightings. When officials would ask for the location, callers would refuse relaying the macaque’s whereabouts. Officials said callers wanted the monkey to remain “free.”
Wildlife officials have been concerned about the likelihood of a violent end for the macaque since 2009.
The monkey slowed his rambling ways about a year ago, settling into a quiet neighborhood of Lake Maggiore, about three miles from the USFSP campus.
Residents in the neighborhood have kept quiet about the monkey, ensuring its safety from the public.
The Tampa Bay Times reported the monkey sits neighbor’s windowsills and roofs, usually when residents are inside preparing dinner or eating meals together.
Wildlife officials and neighbors believe the monkey does this as a way of socializing. This monkey’s search for a mate has been in vain, and the monkey is lonely.
Last week, the macaque violently attacked a woman in the neighborhood who was sitting outside. He bit her twice on the back before she threw him off and he scampered away.
And now the stakes are higher for nabbing the macaque and the approach for the catch becomes more extreme.
And humans continue setting boundaries for the animal kingdom without setting their own.
