Children in New Zealand at least are a bit more sheltered than the rest of us. They found a body in the creek while attending a Rugby festival and went on to play with it – prodding it with sticks, picking up pieces of it and have a grand time – for almost two weeks before they realized it was not a dead crocodile.

It wasn’t until the father of one of the children accompanied his child to see the odd dead animal in the water than the truth became clear. The dad apparently poked the “crocodile” with a stick as well and tried to fish it out of the water only to see black hair still on the skull.

Investigators say the body is “badly decayed” and it is believed to possibly be the remains of a woman who went missing in January.

While a horrifying tale, I believe the parents of these children should be applauded for protecting their youngsters from the kind of gore and violence that is so rampart in video games and shows. Had these young rugby players watched even a single episode of CSI, they would have realized instantly what they were playing with.

Badly decomposed or not – a skull is a skull. One would hope that the children will not be scarred by the ordeal or spend years thinking back to the time they played a bit of rugby with that crazy new ball they fashioned from a “dead crocodile.”

One might also hope that the remains be shown a bit more dignity now that they are identified correctly.