I just received this forwarded email from my batchmates from school about the Ark of Avilon (AoA) Zoo located at Frontera Verde near Tiendesitas in Pasig.  I’ve never been to this zoo before, but this is quite alarming.  As a concerned parent like he is, I do understand what the family of this person, Mr. Jerry Liao feels.

"Friends,
>
> PASS THIS STORY TO YOUR FRIENDS…
>
> My Family and I visited the new Ark of Avilon (AoA) Zoo located at
> Frontera Verde near Tiendesitas in Pasig last January 5, 2008. The highlight of the
> said zoo is they allow people especially kids to touch their animals like
> orangutan, parrots, eagles, rabbits, tortoise and snakes.
>
> And when you allow your kids to touch these animals, you trust that the
> animals are harmless and are trained not to hurt its visitors.
>
> Unfortunately, my 2nd daughter was bitten by an Albino King Snake. Her
> finger was bloodied so I quickly ask where the clinic was located. I saw a
> sign that read Hospital/Quarantine, I quicky open the door but found
> nothing inside but some cages and two people talking. I ask if there’s a
> doctor there and they said none. Then the king snake handler came over and
> directed us to follow him. I thought we would be brought to a clinic. To
> my dismay, we were brought to a dirty pantry full of flies. And the handler
> administered Betadine to my daughter’s finger, which was stored in a soy
> sauce gallon container. A park with no clinic, no doctor and no medicine.
>
> I took my daughter to the hospital, and upon reaching the hospital the
> first question was what kind of snake bit my daughter. I told them its an
> Albino King Snake. They were not sure whether the king snake is a venomous
> or a non-venomous snake. They said they had to consult an expert about
> this. After awhile, Thank God that the king snake was a non-venomous one.
> But the doctors wanted to be sure so they gave my daughter an anti-tetanus
> drug and ask her to take anti-biotics for seven days.
>

The Albino King Snake

> After reaching home, I texted both Jake and Tina Gaw (owners of AoA) that
> the doctor asked us to observe my daughters condition. I also told them
> that I am going to write about this horrible experience. Tina texted back
> and said: "Jerry, if thats how bad you felt, I respect your personal
> feelings concerning the incident. I wish she (my daughter) could have been
> more careful in handling the snake or other pets as well especially this
> one is exotic. Even tame ones, rabbit, tortoise, mouse, pig bite when they
> felt hurt or frighten when not properly handled. And its really sad when
> you felt it became a horrible issue."
>
> Now it’s my daughter’s fault to be bitten by the snake? AoA never bothered
> to offer their help and now they blame my daughter for the incident. That
> was a very insensitive remark by Tina. I don’t think the snake was hurt or
> frighten, they were tired and irritated because they were being used to
> entertain people.
>
> Exotic you say? Why allow them to be touched by people? Yes, I agree that
> animals bite when they felt hurt or frighten, but let me remind the
> management of AoA that most of your audience are children, I even saw some
> as young as two years old. They will just touch and play with the animals
> without knowing whether they’re hurting them or not. It is AoA’s
> responsibility to make sure that none of their animals be hurt or frigthen
> so that biting won’t happen.
>
> And since accidents happen, how come Arc of Avilon don’t even have a
> clinic to at least administer some first-aid soluton. What if the eagles decided
> to peck the visitors, or use their big claws to attack the visitors.
> Donkey or horse suddenly kicking. And snakes biting. There shoud be a doctor, a
> clinic and first-aid kit to address this kind of unfortunate incidents.
>
> Arc of Avilon should not allow people to touch a snake that bites plus
> they should have expert handlers to assist its visitors. All the Arc of Avilon
> management can say is that the snake is a non-venomous one. No other help
> was offered, and then they will blame the visitors for mishandling the
> animals.
>
> Am I overacting? I don’t think so. What are the chances that you will get
> bitten by a snake in the metropolis? Worst in a theme park like Arc of
> Avilon. As a parent, will you take it sitting down? Will you just take
> their word for it that it’s non-venomous? Remember, its a snake-bite. Let
> this be a warning to all my readers who are planning to visit Arc of
> Avilon at Tiendesitas or any other zoo for that matter.
>
> Let my story be a lesson to all. You can ask your kids to look but as much
> as possible DO NOT TOUCH. Better yet, DO NOT VISIT the Arc of Avilon
> totally, until they improve their facilities. Never again will we go to
> the Arc of Avilon.
>
> Thank you and more power. God Bless us all!
>
> Jerry Liao
>
>

—— End of Forwarded Message"

Well, my kids love going to zoos.  But, I guess, after this incident, I don’t think I’ll ever entertain the idea of going to a zoo where they don’t have clinics or first aid kits in case anything or any of the animals that THEY ALLOW the people to touch cause injury to me or my children… would you? 

..just my point of view…

Here are a few photos of my daughter, Angel, with her classmates on their fieldtrip to Laguna last

Friday, January 11, 2008

When one makes an apology, what’s the real point in doing it?  In my own personal experience, when I apologize for something, it means I truly admit that I did something wrong, and that I accept the mistake I had committed.  I wouldn’t say “I’m sorry” if I know in my heart that I am not sincere about it, or if I did not truly regret the consequence of the pain or the damage that my actions had caused.  It takes a lot of humility and sincerity. 

When you say I’m sorry and did not get an answer to your plea, what would you do?  What would be the point in saying you’re sorry and then making an announcement to everyone that you had just made an apology?  Is it to seek for sympathy from the rest of the world?  Did you actually feel regret over the mistake that you committed, or did you say you’re sorry just for the heck of doing so?  If it was the latter, well, I guess it would have been better if you did not apologize at all, don’t you think so?

“Don’t try to defend yourself or justify the situation or your actions. The apology is all about THEM and how they feel. It doesn’t matter if the actions were intentional or not, the end result is the same and that is what needs to be focused on when learning how to say I’m sorry.”  The Perfect Apology

…just another passing thought..

How does it feel when you lose someone you used to have, and you suddenly discover that person’s blog site?  And as you surf each page of the site, you realize that this person has moved on with their life and is living a happy, content and fulfilled life without you?  Would it hurt so much?  I guess it probably would, because if it wasn’t hurting, you wouldn’t waste your precious time viewing each and every page of that site trying to find out what is going on in this person’s life. 

The truth hurts…. but hell, DO I GIVE A DAMN? 

Life goes on, as they always say.  No matter how at one part of your life, you realized that things screwed up, life has to go on.  Letting go is never easy, but unless you come to understand and accept the truth that you cannot have everything just the way you want it to be, then you just have to let go.  Yes, everyone makes mistakes in life.  But we cannot live on these mistakes we’ve made for the rest of our lives, can we?  There are mistakes we make that can never be undone.  They have been committed, and whether we like it or not,  there are consequences.  Being just human, we don’t have that power to commit an error and then to dictate what consequences should happen after that error.  That’s a plain truth.  It’s impossible to bring back the past, exactly the way it was before.  The only thing good about it is that we learn from our mistakes, remember not to commit the same mistake, and move on with life, this time the right way.    Does that make sense? 

Just a passing thought….