Woman tries to pet Omaha zoo tiger, gets bitten
Reuters) - A woman who broke into an Omaha zoo was bitten by a tiger when she tried to pet it in its cage, police said.
The woman, Jacqueline Eide, 33, was hospitalized at Creighton University Medical Center after being bitten on the left hand, police said in a statement on Sunday.
Eide entered the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium after it was closed and reached into a tiger's cage to pet it. A friend took her to the hospital.
"Eide was aggressive toward staff and showed signs of intoxication of alcohol and/or drugs," the statement said.
They believe it was this tiger, Mai, a three-legged beauty.
http://news.yahoo.com/woman-tries-pet-omaha-zoo-tiger-gets-bitten-131535933.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
I don't care how drunk she was, what her priors are, or what time it was.
This line is interesting:
A self-described cat lover, Ron Hegg of Spirit Lake, Iowa, stopped outside the tiger’s cage to snap a few pictures.
“If you stick your fingers in a cat’s cage, you’re going to get what you deserve,” he said. “It’s not a smart decision.”
People show up to zoos with all sorts of mental issues, intoxication, maturity level, whatever - they are open to the general public, and they come as they are.
Now, that line right there "If you stick your fingers in a cat's cage..." suggests to me that this is not a proper enclosure for the general public to view a tiger.
At your local zoo, can you "stick your fingers in a cat's cage"? This is the "general public" we are talking about. If it can be done, someone will do it.
You should not be able, from anywhere the general public is invited to observe, to stick your fingers into the enclosure of a dangerous animal. It should not be possible. Period. Under any circumstances.
This reminds me of the cat that got loose in San Francisco because some idiots were "taunting" it. Idiots or not, a tiger enclosure should function to enclose the tiger, and preclude any sort of physical interaction between the tiger and the humans under any circumstances - be they idiots, drunk, or drunk idiots. There is no shortage of any of those categories of people one may find at a zoo.
This is an improper tiger enclosure:
I don't know if it is the one in question, but it did come up in Google results for this zoo and "tiger".
And, like the SF story, someone put quite a bit of energy into researching this woman's troubled background, and no effort into asking "What sort of cage are we talking about here?"
Do people get drunk and break into zoos? You bet they will if they can.
TiGER. It is not a big house cat or a plushie come to life.
It is a TIGER and TIGERS are WILD ANIMALS. Oddly enough, they behave and respond like TIGERS.
This critter was NOT a TIGGER,
Tiggers are found in animated cartoons from Walt Disney Studios and have tails made out of springs. Though there is a superficial similarity, tigers and Tiggers are NOT interchangeable.
Know the difference.
Stoopid is as stoopid does.
