The sordid underbelly of Ft. Lauderdale*

Lorikeet (Butterfly World, Coconut Creek, Florida)

* Well, technically, Coconut Creek

During our recent vacation in Ft. Lauderdale, one of the places somebody recommended  we visit was Butterfly World, in Coconut Creek just a short drive to the north.  I always figured it was a tourist trap, or something for the children, but we had a free afternoon so what the heck.  It turned out to be nice enough, the kind of place I appreciate visiting once but probably never again (for one thing the admission was rather expensive, and that was after we paid to drive into the park in the first place).

The gardens were nice, there were lots of flowers and lots of butterflies, and they also have an aviary where visitors can feed lorikeets, a kind of parrot.  What could possible go wrong?

Plenty, let me tell you.  Look at those beady little red eyes. There's something not right there.  The sign that was posted in the aviary should have given us some warning that all was not right:



Oh sure, they're pretty birds, pretty pretty birds, just begging to be fed.  It's all fun until they try to eat your mole.



And then... and then...



So this was the spectacle awaiting us at Butterfly World.  And to think that there were children present!  I may be psychologically devastated for life.  Have they no decency?  Have they no self-control?  Have they no SHAME?   Why did they have to make me look at them? Why did they have to be so beautiful?  Look away, look away while you still can, lest your eyes be seared by their beautiful, tropical, multicolored lust!