... I am pleased that common sense has prevailed.

It was almost certainly inevitable that I would post on this as soon as it happened, but on Saturday a terrible tragedy unfolding at the Yorkshire Wildlife Park near Doncaster in the UK. A young man somehow got into the tiger enclosure and was mauled by one of the tigers which tragically ended with the young man's death.

From what I have seen it seems that the tiger was playing and unsure what to do with this intruder and one tiger handler said that it was unlikely that the tiger intended to kill him. For if this had been the tiger's intention, then he man "would have been dead in ten seconds."

There is a lot of speculation as to how he got into the enclosure and probably some questions as to how it was even possible. Even though the Yorkshire Wildlife Park does have an excellent safety reputation and actually goes above and beyond the legal stipulations for safety. I am not going to add to that speculation, the point is he got in and then disaster unfolded.

Often when an animal "attacks" (and we are less than certain that this was an attack in the truest sense of the word) it ends up being euthanised / hunted and I am pleased to see that this is not going to happen with this tiger.

Remember the tiger shark that consumed the Russian man in Hurghada a couple of years ago. The shark was subsequently hunted and killed and yet it was a man who entered its territory, not the other way round. There was a myriad of reasons why the shark attacked; it was emaciated and starving and pregnant and desperate for food. Furthermore, one of the reasons why it was the share was starving was due to overfishing in the area. The only concern was that after such an "easy meal" it was loitering under the nearby pier waiting for "seconds". 

If it could have been humanely relocated that would have been the best solution, but it was deemed unfairly that it had to die, just for following its nature.

Somehow doesn't seem fair to me!

Similarly, in front of Warsaw Zoo, there used to be a couple of bears located in a specially designed rocky enclosure for the public to enjoy without actually needing to go in the zoo. That came to an abrupt end when in May 2020 a drunken idiot climbed in and tried to attack one of the bears, an elderly one called Sabina who'd been rescued from a circus.

We must stop making animals pay for our mistakes, even when the outcome is tragic. Whatever the full story behind the tiger attack I am pleased to see that common sense has prevails. There was absolutely no blame on the tiger at all. I know some express concern that once such an animal has learnt to attack a human it would do it again, but it seems (as I have already said) that it probably wasn't a "real attack" and even if the tiger suddenly found this to be a "normalised behaviour", then again, because it wasn't its fault, WE need to learn how to manage the tiger with this in mind.

Let's stop punishing animals when it is our bad!

As always stay safe and well my friends