Why can't people just leave animals alone?

Quoting greatgrandmaR

A lot of aquariums have touch tanks and there are starfish in them. A starfish on the beach can be picked up without hurting it (any more than it was already hurt) So the woman that picked up a starfish on the beach should not have been attacked.

A touch tank isn't a particularly good analogy because that is a man made controlled environment where the staff have selected animals they know can at least withstand being touched. So the star fish in the tanks are the ones they know will not react badly to chemicals and skin oil.

In the wild unless you have the knowledge to tell the difference between the star fish species you don't know for sure how sensitive the creature could be. Also the star fish on the beach picture she didn't pick them up of beach, she pulled them from the water and arranged them on the beach.

[ Edit: Edited on 11-Oct-2019, 01:18 GMT by Teoni ]

If starfish are near the beach, then they are either species that can stand being out of the water or they are have a good chance of dying whatever any passing person does to them.

People are insensitive and do not realize the great harm they are causing others less able to defense themselves.

The reason for this I think is because some people are just not educated that they could harm these creatures. It's sad.