Thursday, December 27, 2007

Fierce Creatures

As I write this, the police are still investigating the incident at San Francisco zoo where a Siberian tiger called Tatiana killed one man and severely injured two others.

The article suggests that she may have been "provoked". Obvious enough, though I'd go so far as to say that for any stranger to violate the animal's "territory" in any way is natural and understandable provocation. In a zoo that territory is very clearly defined.

No suggestion of common motive, but a completely different story springs to mind from last year. A man jumped into a lion's enclosure at Kiev zoo apparently shouting out "God will save me, if He exists". You can guess what happened next.

4 comments:

Faisal said...

Interesting story re. Kiev Zoo. Almost identical thing happened at the Bronx zoo a few years ago...zoo keepers were able to fend the lions off and save the deranged guy--it was all caught on video, including the crazy's mother pleading for help.

As you know, I am a huge animal lover. But nowhere does it say that provoking a wild animal at a zoo carries a death sentence (we can all feel for the provoked animal, but death? Come on.) Besides, it's not a proven thing yet. It could simply be an extra-athletic tiger combined with a barrier just a little too short. There was a similar incident several years ago (same tiger I believe) where a mother and her baby were almost swiped by the leaping feline. She called the authorities to voice her concerns...nobody ever followed up until this incident.

Very sad incident. For the poor tiger that had to pay with its life as well as for the zoo-goers who were mauled.

Anonymous said...

Could you prove that God exists please?

Rana said...

The story does not demonstrate the existence or otherwise of God.

It does demonstrate the existence of people who are stupid enough to believe that God will save them.

Faisal said...

There are a lot of people who hold the belief that God will save them in difficult situations, and there might even be enough of a statistical sample to "prove" that the belief is somewhat valid.

I think it's a good illustration of the fact that there are people stupid enough to actually put themselves in harm's way to prove that their "God" saved them when it really was some other humans' bravery or exceptional luck.