Tiger in Florida zoo shot to death after grabbing man's arm

a reply to: Macenroe82

A fire hose or even extinguisher might have been enough to get the animal to let go.

If the correct tools were available to deal with the situation that poor animals death could have been prevented.

As to the muppet that got bitten, hard to feel sorry for him considering the stupidity displayed.

a reply to: BrokenCircles

The sad fact is that this kind of thing happens all the time. The sadder fact is, the tiger had to die even if it survived the encounter.

Wild animals are wild. Typically, a wild animal will not attack a human because it doesn't realize that a human is made of food. Once one bites a human, though, and tastes that delicious human blood, all that changes. Humans are now on the menu. There are two choices: kill the critter or let everyone around become a buffet. We normally choose to kill the critter rather than feed ourselves to it.

Tigers especially. They are beautiful critters, but they are also very large, very agile, very intelligent, and very good at killing things like us. Tigers are known man-eaters; a rogue tiger can wipe out an entire village, picking off those pesky primates one by one without breaking a sweat. Handlers have to be highly trained in their psychology and only a fool walks up to a tiger's cage alone, even if a professional.

I share your pain at this... the tiger didn't do anything wrong. It did what tigers do. The fool was probably trying to pet it and moved too fast. Tiger sees fast movement, and tiger does what tigers do: neutralize any possible threat (in this case the guy's arm). The real criminal here is the one-armed fool, but none of that changes the fact that the tiger had to die. After this attack, there was no one able to care for it, feed it, or treat it if it got sick. It would die miserably in captivity, and one certainly couldn't turn it loose on an unsuspecting village somewhere.

Every year, I hear about fools who think nature is so pretty and pristine and some sort of Utopian TV show where one can dance with unicorns and Baloo the Bear will run around singing "Bare Necessities" all day. Nope, it's not like that. It is kill or be killed, survival of the fittest, sometimes nasty, sometimes gruesome, often inconvenient... and the most glorious thing on this planet. Most people, including most people who think they can, simply cannot handle being in nature; if they try, they'll wind up screwing something up and likely getting their fool selves all dead and stuff in the process.

I keep waiting for the day when people will realize that the kitty cat is interested in eating them, not in singing "Kumbaya." Alas, I may never get to see that day; it still seems so far away and I'm getting old. But if anyone reading this ever listens to a single word I say, listen to these:

Nature is not your friend, and it's not a game. If you love it, stay out of it unless you know what you're doing.

TheRedneck

We lock these animals up in small cages a long way from their natural homes.
They deserve to be treated better, they should not have shot this animal.
RIP

I hope the guy is fired for this, he should not work with animals anymore

a reply to: BrokenCircles

Having worked briefly in veterinary, you have to consider that there is a period with some tranquilizers and sedatives that some animals actually wig out and get hella violent before they drop. I had it happen with a Samoyed we were trying to sedate that I was trying to restrain. Thing went all Cujo on us.

a reply to: TheRedneck

People needed to grow up watching Nature on PBS. It pulled no punches and I learned all I needed to know about nature from it and shows around it.

Nature is a cruel, merciless b***h, not the loving green mother people think she is.

I hope they charge the idiot who did this right to wall *and* nail him with all the medical bills.

He's responsible for what happened to the tiger. He should have let well enough alone.

Why was the endangered species tiger killed? they should have shot the darn idiot worker for assaulting the endangered tiger.

Idiots, nothing but iditos.

a reply to: BrokenCircles

Stupid people do stupid things but the Tiger was just doing what Tigers do , perhaps the cops should have shot the cleaner to put him out of his pain and stupidity.

The sheriff's office said in a statement that an investigation would determine whether charges would be filed against the injured worker, but it did not say what the charges could be.

It would be a travesty if there aren't.

a reply to: andy06shake

I agree. Tigers are like, my thing.
They are My absolute favourite animal.
Even have a tattoo of one on my forearm.

My absolute dream would be to get a Chance to interact with one. But!!!
I don’t want to end up like Johnny No Arm there. Lol

originally posted by: Spacespider

I hope the guy is fired for this, he should not work with animals anymore

He wasn't even supposed to be working around the animals. His employer was authorized to clean the restrooms and gift shop.

I was just looking to see if they had decided to file any criminal charges against the worker. As far as I can tell, they haven't yet decided but it is still possible.


I did come across this though:

The Naples Zoo reopened on Friday and has created a question and answer page about the tiger attack on their website to "help dissolve rumors."

www.napleszoo.org...

It doesn't say much more than what I already read in the articles, but I did think this part was interesting, and somewhat unexpected:

We also use a two-key/two-person safety protocol that prevents any single individual including our trained carnivore keepers from ever willingly or accidentally accessing a space with a big cat or bear.

a reply to: BrokenCircles

The article I just read said the animal was in its enclosure which sounded like it was maybe on exhibit. The worker had to climb one level of fence to reach the enclosure. So if the animal is housed as part of a tropical exhibit house, for example, that has restrooms in it, and the worker was contracted to clean those, he's in the tropical house, sees the tiger in its exhibit enclosure, climbs down/up whatever to it and proceeds to behave like a stupid member of the public.

originally posted by: TheRedneck

Typically, a wild animal will not attack a human because it doesn't realize that a human is made of food...

I knew that once certain animals get a taste of human flesh/blood, they might then crave it, but I never really thought of it as meaning that before that first taste, they could have looked at us and not realized that we're edible.

a reply to: BrokenCircles

I’ll bet if the worker tries to sue the zoo, then they will place charges on him.
Sort of like a counter claim.

originally posted by: BrokenCircles

originally posted by: TheRedneck

Typically, a wild animal will not attack a human because it doesn't realize that a human is made of food...

I knew that once certain animals get a taste of human flesh/blood, they might then crave it, but I never really thought of it as meaning that they could look at us and not realize that we're edible.

Look at it this way - your pet cat looks at you as sort of a funny cat, not a human.

originally posted by: ketsuko

Look at it this way - your pet cat looks at you as sort of a funny cat, not a human.

No, he looks at me as his lowly slave. I'm a few levels beneath even the dumbest cat.

originally posted by: BernnieJGato
a reply to: BrokenCircles

Been wondering if they could have tased the tiger. If one can take down a moose, it sure ought to be able to take down a tiger. Sure arm fella might have got a jolt, but when you play stupid games.

This is from 2010,

The cow moose was upset because her two calves were trapped in an open four-foot deep basement foundation at a home construction site. She would not leave the area, even when Lewis tried using noisemakers and rubber shotgun ammunition. Finally, Lewis said he tried to drop a ramp down into the pit so the calves would be able to walk out on their own. But when he approached the calves, the cow moose charged him, jumping into the foundation, across it and back out. It then chased Lewis and the trooper three times around the patrol car. the men were armed but rather than shooting the moose, Lewis said the trooper used his Taser to shoot at the moose across the hood of the patrol car.

The Taser’s barbed, conductive leads hit the moose in the left front shoulder. Stunned and immobilized, the moose hit the ground immediately. The leads pulled free as the moose fell and it quickly ran off into the woods, staying there long enough for Lewis to extract the calves from the basement and for both Lewis and the trooper to retreat safely to the patrol car.

Tasers for Moose and Bears Alaska Explores Law Enforcement Tool for Wildlife

They couldn't use taser because metal cage bars too close together. If taser hit fence it'd turn into an electric fence.

Bottom line - Idiots like this janitor dude, and let's face it, this is likely why he's a janitor and not working the corner office, are why we can't have nice things in society. They do stupid crap and other people (or in this case, a tiger rare beyond compare) pay for it.

Powdered hot peppers is what they use in bear spray.
They should always have a can near large animals like this.
Or a chainsaw - sounds practical, right?
No man's arm was worth that tiger's life.
Not when it was his fault.

Sorry Eko the Tiger.

But you had to go. It was either him or you and we will always chose you.

Nothing personal.

RIP.

a reply to: marg6043

I'm hopeful they were perhaps able to salvage some of the sperm for the genetics. Only the zoo knows how genetically important this individual was to the overall captive population. It sounds like he had two siblings, so they at least can carry on the genes lost with Eko.