Animal attack

[Saft]

...I wrote a whole post in regards to this thread but internet disconnected...however, the topic is rather simple...and I can always add more later on...


In the case when animals attack humans, is it always the animals who are at fault or is it the human's?

[Kor]

Likely, as with most things, it could be a variety of reasons.  A human going into an animal's territory and not seeing the signs animals put up, teasing an animal, an animal hungry or angry, and likely other reasons as well.  So the fault would differ, with sometimes it being both could be at fault and sometimes neither are fully.

[Cancerian Tiger]

This park ranger naturalist in-training may be able to help .

Usually, the only time a wild animal will attck a human without a good cause would be if it has some kind of disease or injury that affects its behavioral patterns (i.e. rabies).

Most human-animal encounters are caused by something the human did wrong, either intentionally or accidentally.  The following typically gets humans into trouble with wildlife, especially larger wildlife like bears and moose:

*Approaching the animal too closely.

*Distressing the animal (i.e. chasing it, throwing objects at it).

*Approaching offspring.

*Approaching a food source of an animal that is known to be fiercely possessive of (i.e. bears will defend animal carcasses).

*Feeding wildlife, which treaches them to lose fear of humans and approach them for handouts from now on.  If the next human does not feed the animal, the animal may become aggressive and try to "beat up" the human badly enough so they'll surrender any food items.

*Running away from an animal once the human has been spotted- especially typical behavior of carnivorous animals.

*If an animal with an excellent human-like memory, such as bears, lose a baby to a human, they may get the idea that history will repeat itself and therefore will attack the next human they see out of self-defense.

*Startling wildlife by sneaking up on it, either accidentally or intentionally.

*Very rarely, a carnivorous animal may suddenly attack and kill a human for predatory purposes.  This is why it's important to take even more extreme caution when hiking or camping in what we call Bear Country during the late Fall, when bears are making final attempts to fatten up before hibernation.

Do keep in mind that many, many more humans die each year from homicides, dog attacks, bee stings, and car wrecks than the number of humans that are killed by wildlife.  However, it's funny how humans don't have the same level of fear for cars, dogs, bees, or even other humans that they feel from wildlife.  Just wanted to make that known so nobody who reads this will continue to believe those wild myths out there about wildlife preying upon humans :.

Hope this helps !

[MrDrake]

I would say that its the human's fault, they provoke the animal by doing whatever, as in, going into the animal's territory, doing something to provoke the animal and therefore, they get attacked for something they did.

Humans don't tend to think things through on that half.  Even in regards to dogs at home, I still blame the humans on that for not keeping their dogs contained properly....

So in other words, in regards to animal attacks, I would usually blame the humans for it.  Only on some occasions I could blame animals....such as a bear wandering into a picnic park area and causing a disturbance sort of thing.

[Malte279]

While I think that unprovoked attacks of animals on humans are sometimes (not the norm though) possible, I think the term "fault" is difficult to apply on animals as it would imply projecting a whole system of morals and codes of conducts on them which are just not part of their consciousness. In most cases I suppose unreflected behavior on the part of the human to be the trigger for an attack.
In some cases it is also humans breeding of animals with the purpose of making them aggressive (thinking of attack dogs in particular there) at the core of attacks which sometimes have not been specifically provoked.

[landbeforetimelover]

It is always either the human's fault or no one's fault at all.  It is NEVER the animal's fault.  They just do what they think they need to in order to survive.  They don't do things out of malice or hatred, nor do they take pleasure in hurting or killing other creatures (unlike humans).

[Malte279]

They don't do things out of malice or hatred, nor do they take pleasure in hurting or killing other creatures (unlike humans).

Not a 100% certain about that one. There are observations suggesting some kinds of apes (very closely related to humans of course) to be able to conduct acts of malice for the harm of others without personal benefit unless it was some kind of malicious joy. Also there are cases (cats for example) where animals "play" with their prey. Rather than immediately killing and eating whatever they caught (which would be the purely own-life-preserving approach) it is often observed that they let go of the prey catch it again and sometimes conduct acts that (if done by humans) would be listed as "cruel and unusual punishment". Animals can take joy from hunting. But (unlike in case of the apes where the acts of "malice" were conducted against their own kind but didn't involve killing) I wouldn't label such acts of cruelty as deliberate malice by the human definition of the term.
We know way too little about the consciousness of animal but I suppose that if we did know a lot more the knowledge would probably confirm the view that human perceptions, morals, codes of conduct etc. cannot be simply projected on animals.