Regarding that poor guy at the British zoo (the one who got into the tiger enclosure)

This is mostly musings and thinking - I don't expect anyone to have concrete answers for this. I'm not going to post any links to stories or videos about the incident, as I suspect even the edited videos might be unpleasant for some on here. For anyone who doesn't know, a man intentionally went into the tiger enclosure at a zoo in Great Britain. From some of the news reports, I inferred that he was trying to take selfies or something like that. The tiger did what tigers do - mauled and killed him.

What got my attention is some statements in the stories and comments that allege he was autistic (or neurodivergent or such - not sure what the correct term might be), and his attendant had walked away briefly for some reason. I'm trying to wrap my head around the notion that if one is an attendant/caretaker type person for someone in this kind of scenario, shouldn't the person know whether the ward had the propensity to wander off into dangerous situations? In the video clips the poor guy sincerely didn't seem to recognize the danger he was in, even when he held his hand up as if to tell the tiger "stop". Sad no matter what, and I suppose that plenty of folks with full capacity enter zoo exhibits with dangerous animals often enough anyways.

As a postscript, the zoo is not going to euthanize the tiger, as it was only following it's own instincts. I suppose that's a small consolation in this incident.

Comments

  • Unfortunately this isn’t the first time something like this has happened and probably won’t be the last.

  • Well, just ran across a very recent news update - seems that he intended to die. "The zoo-goer who was mauled to death by a Siberian tiger had taunted the big cat to come and “kill” him, according to harrowing eyewitness accounts of his final moments."

  • The tiger did what tigers do - mauled and killed him... it was only following it's own instincts.

    Yet another person learns that real animals are not like the animated animals in those Disney/Pixar movies.

  • Yet another person learns that real animals are not like the animated animals in those Disney/Pixar movies.

    I dunno. Shere Khan was pretty scary.

  • A sad event for the victim and family for sure.
    My Dad always told me " You play with the bull, you get the horn".

  • My Dad always told me " You play with the bull, you get the horn".

    My dad said if you play with the monkey and the monkey is smiling then you are a sick puppy.