[ClearCase_guy]

For the 7-year-old boy, I have some sympathy.

For the woman in Germany? No sympathy. None.

[Eepsy]

How dare you post a pic like that without linking a story!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/5142098/Woman-survives-polar-bear-mauling-at-Berlin-Zoo.html

Not to be confused with the case of the unfortunate Miss Searles, Zinc Heiress:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=sJggAAAAIBAJ&sjid=kGgFAAAAIBAJ&dq=woman%20polar%20bear&pg=2171%2C1081340

[FlyVet]

Well, people like that are deluded by the Disney syndrome, or those TV commercials where polar bears are presented as soft and sweet and cuddly.

When I lived in N. Maine years ago, my friends and I were on a camping trip and visited one of the "bear dumps", one of those garbage dumps that were a tourist attraction, no longer open to the public, of course. Too many stupid people. I witnessed people getting out of their cars with their kids, to get a photograph of those docile creatures up close. We'd tell them that's not a good idea, but black bears in that setting are so docile-seeming. Couldn't convince these people, if that bear decided to become irritated, he could be on them in a second, beating them like a rag doll.

I have a photo of one of those bears from that evening, with his paws comfortably on the roof of a Grand Cherokee, which is about 7 ft high. He must have been well over 500 pounds.