Incident at Whangarei's Zion Wildlife Park

I'm not going to copy the article here because that'd be cheating the shop system (hint hint ) so here it is:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20090527/twl-rare-white-tiger-mauls-zookeeper-to-3fd0ae9.html

I can sort of understand killing wild animals on the loose, but I find it absurd that any contained animal such as one in a zoo would be avenged for killing a person, especially if that animal is an extremely rare tiger. Does killing it solve anything? No. Being more careful in the future does. Without knowing any details about the incident I'm sure that it was the zookeeper's fault for not keeping to certain rules.

And what's up with the cryptic 'destroyed'? Yahoo has no problem writing down 'shot' so I assume the tiger wasn't shot but... clobbered to death? That's even more barbaric.

Humans' thirst for direct revenge makes me respect animals more.

 

Not only the word used, but that's the only thing mentioned about the tiger's fate. I'd understand if it was wild dog or some rodent but it's a rare tiger and they just got rid of it?

Bastards

 

You're own species comes first.

How do you think his family feels? That he was killed in such a violent, traumatizing way, with great suffering. Would you not want your loved one avenged? If that happened to someone I cared a lot for, I would torture that tiger.

Maybe that tiger had a history of being a little more prone to attacking someone anyway. Did you think of that? Maybe they just couldn't have such a violent animal continue to attack people.

 

If you side with the human party here that's like you "adopting" a stray dog and crying/blaming the animal if you get bitten.

If you decide to keep an animal in an artificial environment, you have to deal with the consequences. You can set up rules to help, but don't blame someone else when you make a mistake, regardless of the consequences (injury, death, etc.), especially considering that it's natural that the animal will want to attack you. How natural is you capturing it?

 

How natural is it to let death of someone close to you go?

 

Alright so kuvasz if it was you or the tiger you wouldn't mind if other people chose the tiger over you? Or I guess you would just let it maul you or your co-worker to death.

Also, when your in the heat of the moment your not thinking about those things, the only thing on your mind is how your gonna survive or how someone close to you is. Trust me I've been in some dangerous situations before and not much else is gonna be on your mind.

 

But that wasn't you or tiger situation at all. The guy was already dead and then they "destroyed" the tiger. It would be entirely different story if they shot the tiger to prevent the worker's death.

Of course I wouldn't be happy with someone close dying, but I sure wouldn't torture an animal which just acted on it's instincts

 

I'm wrathful, what can I say?

 

That you fail. As an intelligent human you should know that it doesn't solve anything, only makes things worse (in this case, decreasing the number of the already near extinct animal even more - and if you keep them in a zoo then you are concerned about this). Especially in this case, in a zoo, where it's 100% the human's fault for not keeping to the rules they established as precautions. That, or the tiger demonstrated super powers and put on a cape and acted in a fashion that was unpredictable.

 

Why does it really matter if it goes extinct? A human being is much more important then some big vicious cat.

 

Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel.

- Samuel Clemens

 

That depends, some animals do some cruel things that is part of their nature but nobody complains because they are animals. Large snakes slowly suffocate their prey and praying mantises bite their mates head off after mating, I would say those acts are kinda cruel.


Then there is the fact why do most people only care about furry cute animals? I'm sure you smash bugs all the time and they are just doing what they do too. Snakes are killed all the time too yet no one complains about that. Yet all of a sudden some rare white tiger mauls someone to death and he is put down its a big deal. What about all the ranchers that protect their cattle and other livestock from predators by killing them? No one complains about that. Or complain about all the mice and insects that are bred just to be fed to a snake or other reptile. They are living animals too and humans are indirectly responsible for them.

I mean its not like they hung the tiger upside town from a tree and beat it to death, like they do dogs in some Asian countries.

Look I don't like harming animals or anything at all but sometimes you got to do what you got to do. I mean if some wild animal like a coyote or wolf got into my house searching for food and is hostile towards me I'm gonna do something about it.

 

It seems you completely missed the point here, it being the fact that the animal in question was not on the loose but was kept confined. Confined with fences and precautions that have been carefully formulated to avoid such things happening. If such a thing happens, it means it's the fault of the designers and/or the ones not abiding by the designers' rules, not the animals'. Yet they get killed. This is the reason I'm saying the dead man must've had it coming.

As for not being hung up and beaten, doesn't the word 'destroy' leave the possibility open for that?

And just so you know I haven't killed any animals that didn't pose a direct threat to me in the past... I don't know how many years. Mosquitoes, flies infesting my food and the like, yes, but everything else, spiders, other creepy-crawlies I catch in some container and throw out into the garden. This isn't boasting, only denying what you were sure of.

 

I don't. The only thing I kill without remorse is mosquitoe because it's either it's blood or mine. And I don't torture it just because it hurts me.

I see your point on self defence and it's fine. Of course you'd try to prevent animals from hurting you or kill bugs/rodents/predators that are after your stock. But the tiger here was entirely different case.

One problem here is that we lack information, especially wether there were previous incidents with the tiger and what exactly happened to it.

 

I understand your point believe me but you also got to understand the workers at the zoos' point of view. I mean one of their co-workers was mauled to death right before there eyes. It's not surprising that they would put it down after such a experience and it also prevents over workers from suffering the safe fate.

 

It would be understandable if it was just put down. The word "destroyed" however, suggests it wasn't as simple as that.
But again, we don't know that.

 

I was of the impression that when they say it was "later destroyed" that during the chaos of the worker being mauled death in their fear and desperation the ones that came to help shot it down. That to me seems the most likely case but we will never know.

"later" could mean as short as 5 minutes or less after or as long as a hours or days and "destroyed" could mean any number of things as well.

 

being in New Zealand it's been all over the news here.

"Destroyed" is shot, they shot a nearly extinct tiger for being a tiger. And Dark, even the family of the zookeeper said that it shouldn't have been killed, humans may be higher priority than an endangered species but is revenge?

 

I'm a vengeful person.

 

This issue comes up now and again. We have this problem with the Florida Panther and alligators. Humans think they can come upon animals and set the rules for them. "You'd better not bite me or interfere in my life or I'll kill you."

Personally, I think there are proper safety precautions that should be followed in instances like this. First off, why the hell was the keeper cleaning an area that the tiger had access to? Seriously. If you read the whole article they also state that a girl was mauled when she stuck her hand "through the enclosure fence." Why the hell would you allow hands to be stuck through a tiger enclosure? Put up plexiglass for the love of god. Sounds like stupidity to me.

So what's my opinion? Tiger shouldn't have been killed, the people who own the zoo should be.

Oh, and again about the situation here in the U.S. Often mountain lions (or panthers) attack mountain bikers, etc. If I were to be killed by such an animal, I would want it to live. I was dumb enough to become its prey, so I'm fair game. Better than being killed by a human for no purpose.