Forest Service issues whitewater warning!

Summer rafting used to mean hours of carefree fun on the river. No longer. Word has gone out to vacationers across the land that their floating frivolity might just come to a tragic end.

It seems that the exotic pet trade in America--long blamed for alligators in the sewers of New York--has another life-threatening consequence. Thoughtless owners of once-cute baby sharks and hippos have been releasing their grown-up, no-longer-cuddly pets into the nation's rivers and streams.

The horrible repercussions
of their careless actions
are illustrated here.
These shocking images
bring to mind the movie
slogan from the summer of 1978,
"Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water..."

Well, Mr. and Mrs. America,
it AIN'T safe, so watch your rear ends out there.