Zoo incident sparks debate on disability, care & public reaction

In the news recently, we heard the shocking story of a child being "thrown" into the crocodile enclosure at Johnson’s Zoo in Cambridgeshire. Thanks to the bravery of the zoo owner's wife, the child – a three-year-old boy – survived but with serious injuries.

Of course, there has been an outcry from the public when it was made known the man arrested at the scene was a 20-year-old man with severe learning disabilities. He was at the zoo with two carers; apparently – from eyewitness accounts – enjoying his time there.

The outcry was along the lines of "people like him shouldn’t be let out – even with carers". In some corners of the internet this spiralled into comments like "this is why people like this should have been killed at birth." This latter comment has regularly been used for all disabilities and any age group across the internet for the last couple of years, so it wasn’t surprising.