Off The Cuff

Tiger Attacks People At Zoo

Posted by: From Arkansas in Are You Kidding Me?, Beyond Bizarre, It's A Rant, Shame of America, What's Wrong With This Picture? on Jan 17 2008

Welcome back!

I realize that this particular story ran a while back but new things have come up about that and I wanted to give a rant about them. There was some question concerning the possibility that the original young men were taunting the tiger to make him mad. I suspect that did happen. Having said that, I also see that the zoo people really messed up.

For instance, the call to them about a tiger being out was received by someone who believed that the people were on drugs or on some type of high. This caused them to respond extremely slowly to the emergency involving their tiger who was by this time out roaming around the zoo freely.

Then, when a couple of victims were pleading with a food shop person to let them in, the food shop person refused to do so. They were mauled by the tiger after that.

Calling 9-1-1 was pretty useless because the excuse was that the emergency response people did not want to get hurt. This was not determined by the response team but by the dispatcher who received the call. It took them 30 minutes to respond to the emergency. And while they were in a corner somewhere in fear of their own lives which were NOT in danger, the young man died waiting to be helped.

In each case, the zoo failed to protect the public. Yes, I do believe that the young men did something to provoke the attack. However, the zoo is supposed to have the dangerous animals in a restrained area where the animals cannot get out for any reason. I think that the young men used extremely poor judgment and one of them paid with his life. Surely that is enough.

What’s wrong with this picture? First, the zoo wants to solely blame the victims. Uh uh. That doesn’t fly. If the zoo was safe enough, the tragedy would not have happened in the first place. If there were guards or some type of personnel out walking around making sure that zoo patrons are not acting up, this would not have happened either.

Yes, there is blame to be put on the young men. Definitely. But I believe that the zoo officials AND the 9-1-1 dispatcher were at fault too. They also handled things very badly. Is this what we can expect out of places like this? Because if it is, then no parent will feel safe taking there child or teen to such a place. I would certainly not want any member of my family involved in a problem like that.

The lack of interest in the possibility of an actual attack by a tiger from the zoo personnel should be subject to firing and criminal charges. The lack of interest in the food shop person who locked the door and would not allow anyone in the store. Is the tiger going to open the door with his paws?????? Criminal charges for gross stupidity at the very least. The lack of interest from the dispatcher in getting people out to the scene is also something that should be subject to dismissal and criminal charges. Where is the humanity in all this? Some would say that the boys that started this got what they deserved. That might be the case although I really question whether death is a just reward for taunting a supposedly secured animal. I call that brain dead.

However, I do want to ask this. What did the other victims do to deserve it? They just happened to be in the wrong place, wrong time…right? I don’t think so. I think that the zoo needs to be investigated and possibly charged with negligence. Yes, I think they should have thought of this and made certain that the tigers were completely secure.

What really bothers me the most about all this is the complete lack of humanity in it.All the way from the taunting young men to the zoo officials who thought people were on drugs because they said a tiger was loose. And all the way to the dispatcher who wasn’t sending anyone out to help the injured and the dying. I am ashamed of them all and shocked that no one was willing to help from the zoo. Or if someone did, they were in the minority. Where is the humanity????

The zoo officials, the person at the food shop, the dispatcher all receive the Shame of America Award today. How can this happen in one of the richest countries in the world? I can tell you. You will not want to hear it but I can tell you. Self interest. Self centered people who only care about themselves. Cold hearts. The shame of all this is that there are fewer and fewer heroes in our lives.

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