And it comes out

[urbpan]

Sorry I jumped to blame the victim, but it appears I was right.

Okay, so the wall was four feet shorter than the AZA recommendations state. It still took 60 years for someone to be obnoxious enough to annoy the tiger into jumping out.

Here's where the zoo is really culpable: these three guys apparently drunkenly roamed the zoo taunting animals conspicuously enough for zoo guests to report it, for some amount of time, without security throwing them out. But once again, it was Christmas day, and I imagine they were short staffed.

When someone dies for a stupid reason, there's enough blame to go around for everyone.

Comments

[sin-agua.livejournal.com]

I obviously had not had my coffee this morning and was not terribly mindful with my comments. Reading them over again now, I see I was being a bit harsh. Probably a reflection of spending years being taunted myself, and growing up with a step-father who was abusive to animals and me unable to do anything about it.

I agree with you that it is foolish to think no one will tease the animals.

Taking satisfaction in his death is creepy. And sin_agua, if the "death" part of your equation was correct, there would be far, far fewer people walking this planet.

If I did take any satisfaction, it was only momentary, and I was speaking a bit emotionally this morning, as I said. But I still feel more sympathy for the tiger than the kid. As for the equation, well...I've seen a lot of stupid people (myself included) miss out on getting themselves killed simply by dumb luck. So yeah, I guess that's why there's still so many of us around. ;)

[ndozo.livejournal.com]

I really understand. I always tend to side with animals first as well, and this morning I was trying to figure out why. I came to a similar conclusion to yours, that having been the clueless target of much taunting and meanness in school, and feeling trapped in that situation, my reflexive sympathy was for the tiger. If only I had been able to maul my tormentors, or perhaps kill them with my teeth and claws, my school years would have been much, much, much more fun. But now, as the parent of a fairly typical teenage boy, I live with my fingers crossed that he will survive these next few years, and he's a pretty reasonable kid, who, I'm happy to say would have been defending the tiger. He might have gotten in a fight over it, but at least it would have been with his own species. I'm sorry if I came back too strongly this morning.

[sin-agua.livejournal.com]

Thanks - that was an incredibly kind response. :)