11 Year Old Boy + Zoo Tiger + Restricted Area

[Abu3baid]

This is not for the light hearted, so proceed with caution.

Obviously there are many lessons from this for me.. some of them are.

1.  Teach my two boys and girl that lions, tigers, big animals with big teeth are not like cats when it comes to petting and feeding.

2.  Teach them that you should never go over a restricted area in a "ZOO" no matter how friendly an animal looks

3.  Teach them that you do not pet dangerous animals through a cage

4.  Teach them that you do not ever ever feed an animal at the "ZOO" unless it is "ZOO" sanctioned feeding.

---

Now the Zoo.. What kind of mickey mouse Zoo are you running, where a kid that is 11 years old can just basically jump over and go play around by the cage and try and pet that damn animal??  Have you guys not heard and seen enough mutilations at other Zoo's across the world that you design an area that is not accessible by even the most innovative curious 11 year old??  Yes, people have to practice common sense, but the ZOO also has a responsibility to protect idiots and small children who have not fully developed a sense of danger and understanding consequences..

What a tragedy indeed.. a preventable one at that!

[David in FL]

This is not for the light hearted, so proceed with caution.

Obviously there are many lessons from this for me.. some of them are.

1.  Teach my two boys and girl that lions, tigers, big animals with big teeth are not like cats when it comes to petting and feeding.

2.  Teach them that you should never go over a restricted area in a "ZOO" no matter how friendly an animal looks

3.  Teach them that you do not pet dangerous animals through a cage

4.  Teach them that you do not ever ever feed an animal at the "ZOO" unless it is "ZOO" sanctioned feeding.

Now the Zoo.. What kind of mickey mouse Zoo are you running, where a kid that is 11 years old can just basically jump over and go play around by the cage and try and pet that damn animal??  Have you guys not heard and seen enough mutilations at other Zoo's across the world that you design an area that is not accessible by even the most innovative curious 11 year old??  Yes, people have to practice common sense, but the ZOO also has a responsibility to protect idiots and small children who have not fully developed a sense of danger and understanding consequences..

What a tragedy indeed.. a preventable one at that!

Disagree.

This is a clear case of gross negligence on the part of the father.  The only question should revolve around his fitness as a parent.

The only good news is that it didn't happen in the U.S.  If it had, the lawyers would have immediately gotten involved, destroyed the tiger, closed the entire big cat exhibit, and likely sued the zoo out of existence.  All because an idiot actively facilitated his son's violation of the safety procedures in place.

[Abu3baid]

Disagree.

This is a clear case of gross negligence on the part of the father.  The only question should revolve around his fitness as a parent.

The only good news is that it didn't happen in the U.S.  If it had, the lawyers would have immediately gotten involved, destroyed the tiger, closed the entire big cat exhibit, and likely sued the zoo out of existence.  All because an idiot actively facilitated his son's violation of the safety procedures in place.

You are entitled to your opinion, but I wouldn't consider that a safety procedure..  I agree 100% on where the %$#^ was the father while his son was trying to pet the tiger, but I'm surprised that you think a shitty fence like that is enough for you to say that the ZOO has done all it can.  There are wild animals in the "ZOO" and they have two main responsibilities..

1.  Make sure that there is no way for the animal to get out into the public

2.  Make sure that no idiot can get within biting/scratch/petting range ever, (excluding petting areas)

I t really isn't that hard for them to do, they probably just don't care... I bet things will change at that ZOO asap!

[Zeph]

If the father let him climb the fence and pat the tiger, he's either stupid or unfit for the job. Maybe both.

The fence did look easy enough to climb over. I have never been to a zoo, so I don't know how they usually protect against spectators getting that close, but I can imagine there being many zoos in the world that has something similar to this one.

A child can of course run off and climb over the fence without there being adults nearby.

[luu5]

You are entitled to your opinion, but I wouldn't consider that a safety procedure..  I agree 100% on where the %$#^ was the father while his son was trying to pet the tiger, but I'm surprised that you think a shitty fence like that is enough for you to say that the ZOO has done all it can.  There are wild animals in the "ZOO" and they have two main responsibilities..

1.  Make sure that there is no way for the animal to get out into the public

2.  Make sure that no idiot can get within biting/scratch/petting range ever, (excluding petting areas)

It really isn't that hard for them to do, they probably just don't care... I bet things will change at that ZOO asap!

What about roads? There are metal animals running on streets about 30-100 mph. Most of the streets/roads have no fences. Thousands of people die every year when hit by these animals. For some reason it is allowed to continue year after year, why?

Because some of the responsibility is put also on other party. They have been told to not to walk on middle of the road.

ps. first I thought this was about Tiger and some 11yo asking for autograph after WD...

[Ernest Jones]

ps. first I thought this was about Tiger and some 11yo asking for autograph after WD...

Me too.

[David in FL]

There was a security barrier that the father allowed the kid to climb over as he watched . He should be jailed. But no.....let's blame the zoo because they're the ones who don't care. :doh:

[Mr. Desmond]

Could a reasonable person have foreseen that an individual would climb/jump that fence and interact directly with the tiger?

Could a reasonable person have foreseen that a child might part with his parents or become lost, and be unattended?

Is it reasonable to think that some people have little or no common sense?

Do they have a duty to help protect patrons from dangerous animals?

_____

If you are the Zoo in question, should you have asked yourself those questions?

[newtogolf]

Could a reasonable person have foreseen that an individual would climb/jump that fence and interact directly with the tiger?

Could a reasonable person have foreseen that a child might part with his parents or become lost, and be unattended?

Is it reasonable to think that some people have little or no common sense?

Do they have a duty to help protect patrons from dangerous animals?

_____

If you are the Zoo in question, should you have asked yourself those questions?

The zoo should have made the fence higher and much harder to climb, maybe even placed some barb wire at the top.  In the video I viewed, the father helped the kid over the fence and watched his son try to pet, grab and feed the Tiger.  IMO, both the zoo and parent have some responsibility for what occurred, the zoo 10% and the father 90%.

[RonTheSavage]

This has to be the WORST father in history, the kid is lucky to be alive. Something like this happened a few years back on Christmas Day here in San Francisco. Some drunk Teens threw pine cones and shouted at a Siberian Tiger for so long the Tiger got pissed then JUMPED and climbed out of the enclosure and killed one of the teens before mauling and seriously injuring the other two. From what I understand the Tiger (Tatiana) ignored other patrons and went after the teens only. From Wiki On December 25, 2007, Tatiana escaped from her open-air enclosure at the San Francisco Zoo and attacked three visitors shortly after closing time. After escaping from the tiger grotto, Tatiana killed one patron, Carlos Eduardo Sousa Jr., and injured two brothers, Amritpal "Paul" and Kulbir Dhaliwal. The brothers fled to the zoo cafe approximately 300 yards (270 m) away and, according to initial reports, left a trail of blood that the tiger followed. Paul Dhaliwal began screaming outside the locked Terrace Cafe, prompting an employee to call 9-1-1 at 5:07 pm. According to early news sources, the Dhaliwal brothers had slingshots on them at the time of the attack. In later reports, the police denied that slingshots were found in the victims' car or at the zoo. Zoo visitor Jennifer Miller and her family allegedly saw the group of men, including an unidentified fourth person, taunting lions less than an hour before the tiger attack. She later identified Carlos Sousa as being part of the group but said Sousa did not join in the taunting. Despite these eyewitness accounts, the Dhaliwal brothers' lawyer, Mark Geragos, denied that the brothers teased the animals. It has been suggested that the brothers were drunk at the time of the attack. Two days after the attack, on December 27, 2007, the zoo retracted its prior claim that the grotto's moat wall was 18 feet (5.5 m) tall, after officials measured it and found it was actually 12.5 feet (3.8 m) tall. The AZA recommendation for big cat enclosures is a moat wall of 16.5 feet (5.0 m). Tatiana's paws were also found to carry concrete chips, suggesting that she climbed out of the moat using her claws on the wall. The attack was the first visitor fatality due to an animal escape at a member zoo in the history of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, according to the association. A 1996 zoo visitor reported an incident in which a tiger leapt and got a paw on top of the wall but slipped down. She said that a zoo employee dismissed the incident as a regular occurrence and that her letter to the zoo's director went unanswered.

[RJH999]

I was under the impression that Tiger Woods did this....

[Abu3baid]

There was a security barrier that the father allowed the kid to climb over as he watched . He should be jailed. But no.....let's blame the zoo because they're the ones who don't care. :doh:

Clearly I didn't say that... That is why the first part of my post is to tach my kids specific things.. The father is obviously going to bear a lot of the blame... However, to suggest the zoo played no role what so ever is really cutting them a lot of slack! Do you agree with the two main responsibilities I stated or do you find that there is no such responsibility from the Zoo? Is it difficult to put a higher fence so kids can't climb over or under? Would you be of te same opinion if there was no fence and just a cage? [quote name="luu5" url="/t/76284/11-year-old-boy-tiger-restricted-area/0_10#post_1032472"]What about roads? There are metal animals running on streets about 30-100 mph. Most of the streets/roads have no fences. Thousands of people die every year when hit by these animals. For some reason it is allowed to continue year after year, why? Because some of the responsibility is put also on other party. They have been told to not to walk on middle of the road. ps. first I thought this was about Tiger and some 11yo asking for autograph after WD... [/quote] Clearly I agree the responsibility is on both parties, and even more so on the parent!

[Grndslmhttr3]

I was under the impression that Tiger Woods did this....

What do you think this is, a website for golf?! But yeah a lot of the time I just use the new posts feature and don't always pay attention to the posts' corresponding forums so I was not expecting a thread about a child sticking his hand through the fence at a tiger exhibit

[Abu3baid]

What do you think this is, a website for golf?! But yeah a lot of the time I just use the new posts feature and don't always pay attention to the posts' corresponding forums so I was not expecting a thread about a child sticking his hand through the fence at a tiger exhibit

Honestly it didn't cross my mind.. Just bought it would be helpful as a lesson learned for all of us who take kids to the zoo.. I mean I go to the zoo in KSA and I haven't seen anything like that.. I mean an are that doesn't protect the people from the animals... And trust me thy lack in organization, so the level of safety at the zoo amazes me!