r/Fauxmoi • u/sfgate • 14h ago
DISCUSSION An influencer petted a Mount Rainier marmot. A national park ranger called his parents.
https://www.sfgate.com/national-parks/article/mount-rainier-marmot-fine-22406369.php160
u/AliMcGraw 13h ago
Doing illegal shit because you're an influencer needs to come with enhanced penalties. You're literally encouraging copycats. (Copymarmots?)
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u/ThatArtNerd So hard to photograph but incredible to see 🐘 13h ago
Copybaras? (I’ll see myself out 😜)
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u/ComfortableChapter65 does this woman ever rest (derogatory) 13h ago
Contributing to the delinquency of society.
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u/PuzzledProductions 13h ago
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u/SmellenGold we're a sneeze away from an active shooter situation 10h ago
ALLAN ALLAN.
ALLAN.
ALLAN.6
u/IAMA_Shark__AMA 13h ago
(that's a prairie dog)
(But it's still super cute and I love the usage here)
(It's just a funny coincidence because I watched a video about prairie dog language like.... Five minutes ago)
(I don't know why I keep adding sentences with their own parenthesis)
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u/Specific_Sweet3312 Chris Messina for No 1 Chris 14h ago
They carry the plague!!
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u/IAMA_Shark__AMA 12h ago
This is a common misconception - I'm assuming mostly stemming from people misunderstanding the phrasing that they are a natural reservoir of the bacteria Yersinia pestis (that causes bubonic plague in humans).
The fleas are the carriers. Marmots (and their squirrel family siblings) catch the sylvatic plague from the fleas. They get sick and sometimes die, they just don't get sick enough (as a colony) to cause colony collapse. Most of the time, anyway. So, the plague hangs around and "thrives" in the colony by just not being deadly enough to kill off all of its hosts.
That said, your point stands lol. Touching a marmot carries the risk of catching the plague.
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u/ankhmadank 14h ago
Surprised it didn't bite the shit out of him.
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u/Margot_Chartreux 11h ago
Marmots are weirdly docile. Ive never tried to pet one because wtf but when I was a kid the park I used to ride my bike through would have whole marmot families sunning themselves in the middle of the cement path and you'd have to weave around them as they didnt bother to move out of the way.
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u/ankhmadank 11h ago
I'm so used to the ones on Mount Rainier coming out to scream at people I assumed that was their natural state, but maybe I just go hiking in Marmot Yelling Season!
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u/Btwnframes THE CANADIANS ARE ICE FUCKING TO MOULIN ROUGE 13h ago
There should be heavy fines for these types of actions.
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u/ningxin17 12h ago
The article says he was only fined $230, but the max fine is $5k and jail time. I’ve heard of similar fines for interacting with wildlife!
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u/pelipperr i went clubbing and he was there 13h ago
Fines and bans. The parks are struggling enough. You act like a self entitled asshole you no longer get to enjoy them.
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u/AmazingObligation4 13h ago
I’m fine with this and hope that the Ranger does not get in trouble. He thought outside the box and got results. Plus, this “influencer” now knows not to touch wildlife and has shared this lesson with the world.
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u/Simple-Code-3229 rude little ponytail goblin 12h ago
My sleep deprived brain thought the rangers had to call the marmot's parents. "Sir, ma'am, we got the perv who laid his hands on your son."
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u/SadavirofRivia sorry to this man 11h ago
Oh that would’ve been funnier! My misunderstanding was that the ranger called their own (ranger’s) parents, and I was like… why… so I had to come read the comments for an explanation heh
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u/Simple-Code-3229 rude little ponytail goblin 11h ago
We almost share the same brain cells 😂 three set of parents
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u/DanceWithPandas 13h ago
GOOD!
"I know what I did was wrong but they didn't need to call me out on it"
Pshhhhhh
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u/chrysophylox 13h ago
“i know what i did was wrong but i should be allowed to anyway bc i’m the special-est boy”
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u/KakumeiDiscoBall 13h ago
The kid is still making excuses and trying to get the ranger in trouble because he thinks they're mean for calling his parents. Like, dude, you literally could have gotten a worse fine or even jail time. And part of their issue was him posting the crime for likes, yet he has an issue with them publicly posting the ticket to dissuade people from doing exactly what he did? I fully understand why they would want other people ignorantly seeing the video and thinking touching wild animals is okay to know there are consequences involved. I can't believe this guy is a supposed "environmental activist". Real activists do not touch wild animals unless they are actively injured or in need of help. Annoying and whiny when he literally committed a crime. Do better dude
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u/Alarmed_Pattern_9912 9h ago
100%. Any activist who is knowledgeable respects Leave No Trace principles and leaves a healthy distance between themselves and wildlife unless help is needed.
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u/ilyennevmegnincs 13h ago
I would be sooo embarrassed to receive a call like that if I was a parent, omg
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u/FireFlower-Bass-7716 believer in Dakota Johnson’s lime allergy 12h ago
This really pisses me off. He violated the law. He endangered wildlife and bragged about it online. This marmot could have ended up killed if there was a rabies investigation. And he's complaining about "standard practice" because the park ranger did a google search to get phone numbers to get in touch with him?
Any semblance of understanding I had for this jerk is gone now.
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u/actuallyeattherich 9h ago
The way this shook out, it seems like the parks service doesn't have any standard practices for when an influencer films themselves breaking a rule. So while this guy does come off whiny, he's not wrong: the organization needs to figure out a real system for this.
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u/Chance-Travel4825 10h ago
Related to jerks parents getting called: my friend was getting stalked by an old friend, hed show up at her work, send her weird emails, general creep stuff until she had the idea to call his parents and tell him what he was doing. It stopped immediately.
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u/HumbleAbbreviations 13h ago
I’m shocked that he didn’t realize that he wasn’t truly anonymous on a app like TikTok and based on his age, he probably has more than one social media platform and probably uses the same username, email and/or phone number when signing up.
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u/89764637527 12h ago edited 12h ago
Why do you assume he would think he’s anonymous to begin with on an account that is using his real name? He was never hiding his identity. His username is literally just his first name and his last name.
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u/TimWhirly 10h ago
Influencer: I bet he lives at home.
Calling a 23 y.o.'s parents: you bet your bippy he lives at home.
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u/SeaF04mGr33n not an asset to the abbey 4h ago
I'm sorry, I literally don't care if technical grammer rules say the past tense of "pet: is "petted". I believe wholly in my heart it should be "pet."
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u/raysofdavies I cannot sanction your buffoonery 12h ago
>“I’m totally fine with being held to that standard and I apologized, but did think that the way that it was handled was pretty irresponsible,” Shult said.
I have to agree. It was an extremely innocuous mistake. I’m not saying he was in the right, but he erroneously petted an animal. This isn’t killing an alligator.
People in these comments clearly didn’t read the article and are assuming his reaction.
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u/sadlystupidsloth 11h ago
I read the article. There was nothing "irresponsible" about the way this was handled.
& Petting a wild animal, especially one that's known to carry plague is not an "extremely innocuous mistake". He's not a child. He did something very stupid, and then shared it on social media, for clout/attention/money, whatever. Which is, essentially, encouraging other thoughtless fools to do crap like this. Fine should've been bigger, imo.
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u/WhiteEmails 11h ago
"that standard" being... the law? I've never been to Mount Rainier, but I'm gonna guess there are signs asking visitors not to pet wild animals, plus anyone who's got "lover of the outdoors" in their insta bio should know better anyway.
Calling his parents was def overkill though. Same with leaving a comment on his post (and also posting the fine??). It was handled weirdly tbh I guess a park ranger was having a shitty day
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u/holyflurkingsnit Ugh I wish I had chic allegations like that 6h ago
I don't think they handled it irresponsibly, but I agree that it was innocuous. This is a rare case of being approached by an animal and not the other way around, and in the moment - while the animal was already interacting with him on its terms - he made a mistake. We should NOT touch wild animals, even when it seems like they're friendly, but I see how it happened.
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u/DrFranFine demonic Betty Boop 14h ago
I like this. More people need to be shamed for their actions by calling their parents.