A knomira refuses to listen about safety protocols when entering a space station animal exhibit. They see very fluffy, bright purple and bright red, creatures with signs that read DON'T TOUCH! AGGRESSIVE! POISONOUS BITES!
They learn the hard way what happens when they try to force their way into the cages to pet the fluffy, seemingly cute, animals. -- Anon Guest
The signs were everywhere around the cage. In several common languages. Including pictograms for those not familiar with those languages. There were also guards. There was a constant voice over on the public address system concerning the dangerousness of the animal within the cage. The peak technology had gone into building it. It was clear that they had done everything they could.
There is always someone who flaunts the rules.
There will be a full review, later. What could be improved about the enclosure. Or, more accurately, what could be improved that would also enable the experience to remain similar. Once again, they would conclude that there was little they could have done.
That was, unfortunately, not going to stop a lawsuit.
"I know my rights!" Those were the first words out of the mouth of an angry deregger tourist. He had been given enough painkillers too allow him to ignore the pain of his wounds; but not enough, unfortunately, to close his mouth. "I'm going to see you all so hard you are going to go blind!"
It was almost a regular dance at this point. The tourist would ignore every single warning in place, go to extremes to surpass the boundaries between them and the beast, and then encounter the inevitable. Once they had encountered the inevitable, they immediately got angry that they had encountered it.
The rare beast only looked fluffy and cute. Humans often expressed a desire to touch it, and very many of them heeded the warnings to stay out of its engineered habitat. Many more of them read about the continuing efforts to re-establish the population on their native world.
Dereggers never read anything, never listened, and threatened to report anyone attempting to physically stopping them from doing what they wanted.
Then they got upset to discover that their actions had consequences.
Once again, those in the field of damage prevention suggested keeping the creatures away from the public entirely, and only allowing them access to a holographic diorama. Once again, those in charge of fundraising highlighted the complaints regarding the reality of the experience. And the complaints about "being forced to pay to see made-up animals". The same complaints surfaced regarding piloting drones or sealed capsules through the habitat.
And, of course, incidents of dangerous driving and attempts to hack the capsules in the case of the latter.
There were also lawsuits regarding descrimination if the zoos refused entry to any Dereggers.
This latest Knomira was screaming about lawsuits before their medical intervention had gone past removing him from the habitat. The inquest into the event was also underway as soon as possible. After all, the people surrounding the zoo could see it coming from the instant the Deregger complained about "being forced" to pay for a ticket because "animals are free".
The question at the table: How the flakk to stop this sort of thing happening again?
Their Deregger visitor would be spending some weeks in Intensive Care, unable to avoid the remedial education material surrounding where he had gone wrong.
"I've had an idea," said a junior for the gate control. "Make them read and sign a statement saying that if they fail to acknowledge and obey the posted warnings... they will be charged fiscally for all the related expenses of their actions."
"That might actually get their attention," marvelled the administrations officer.
[Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash]
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