Okay, I work at a news station in the morning, so I may have a bit of an up on this little tid bit of information, but somewhere here in Houston, a child was killed by a Tiger. Now, this wasn’t some rampant Tiger that escaped from dangerous poachers who captured and abused the thing to bring it over to the US so it could be sold to hip hop video makers or some backwater circus. No, this was a tiger owened by a family who thought it would be a good idea to take a photograph of their three year old child IN THE CAGE WITH THE TIGER!!! WHAT THE FUCK!!! Um, okay, what the fuck is wrong with people? These people keep it locked up in a big cage because they know that it is a big animal that will probably kill someone or eat all the other nieghborhood pets if it gets loose, so what in the HELL was going through their minds when they thought their kid would be SAFE IN A CAGE WITH A TIGER!!! I admit, some people have rather exotic pets, but you don’t let your six year old play with your spitting cobra, there’s just some things common sense should dictate. How is it that people are so fucking stupid???
they should be feed to the tiger as well.
schmucks
When did this happen? A year or so ago some kid here had his arm ripped off by a caged tiger, also a family pet. That it could happen again is beyond belief.
Grr…I was hoping people would have learned a lesson from Como. Como was a rare white tiger and during a photo shoot he got out of his cage (they were in a restricted area) and bit a little girl. Due to a loophole in MN law, Como was euthanized to check for rabies, even though there were other ways to test for the disease. He had been vaccinated, but MN does not recognize rabies vaccine certificates for animals other than cats and dogs. IMO the mother (the photographer) of the girl should not have allowed her child anywhere near the tiger. Como tested negative for rabies.
When are people going to learn to leave their kids at home, or at least not let their children run around WILD animals? In real life it’s not like the movies, wild tiger is not like Tony the Tiger. People are stupid.
How the hell are people able to get pet tigers to begin with? These are creatures that deserve freedom, or at the very least the safety a zoo can provide. They’re not housecats and they shouldn’t be turned into them. I hope the parents are charged with involuntary manslaughter and the sad thing is, the tiger is surely going to be killed for doing what comes naturally to it.
Apparently there are more than a few “exotic pets” in the Houston area. Most have permits, a few don’t. How you can justify keeping a tiger as a pet I don’t know, but it is not illegal in itself.
There have been troubles before. Like the boy who had his arm ripped off. As long as exotics are allowed, there will continue to be problems. Is it appropriate to make exotics illegal?
No matter what the laws, people will do stupid things. You can’t make any plan foolproof because of the ingenuity of fools.
It’s sad.
While watching the cougars in the Calgary Zoo, we saw the most fascinating thing; a small child (around 2-3 years old) was crouched down, looking at something on the ground. The cougars could see her, and they went into full hunting mode when they saw the small girl. I wish every parent could see what we saw that day; there is no doubt in my mind that your small child looks like yummy, delicious PREY to a big cat. And they are completely blameless for this behaviour; it is totally our responsibility to prevent them from acting like themselves around people (i.e. killing anything that looks like prey to them). People who don’t fulfill this responsibility should be shot, not the animal.
heard about this on the news. pretty fucking unbeleavable. these parents should go to jail, go directly to jail and not pass go, do not collect $200.
the sad truth is that these dorks will probably get off light and the poor tiger (who was just being true to his nature) is gonna get the dirt nap.
what a fucking lose/lose/lose situation!
(don’t take this the wrong way, but if you’re gonna die, gettin’ offed by a tiger is pretty cool!)
Really?
I was utterly nauseated by the thought of an innocent kid’s life being punctuated in such a violent and terrifying manner.
Here is a link from the Houston Chronicle
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/metropolitan/1086836
FYI According to it this happened in Lee county, not Harris County which is where Houston is located.
[hijack]
I have a photograph of me with a lion when I was about 4.
The circus was in town. During the day, Dad took me out for a drive to give Mum a break, and we drove past the showgrounds. Dad figured we might as well see if they’d let us have a look around. We walked in the gate, and some guy came up and asked if he could help us, and Dad explained that we were wondering if we could have a look around. The guy said “Sure! You can pat the lions but don’t touch the monkeys”. So Dad took me over to where the lions were. He made me crouch down beside one, and told me to pat it, but I was afraid, so I just crouched there with the lion sitting up beside me. Dad took out his camera and just as he went to take the shot, the lion laid down and went to sleep. Dad was so disappointed - he said the shot would have looked great, like the lion was about to eat me. Anyway, we had a look at the monkeys and then went home.
Mum nearly died when the photos were developed. Dad always likes to speculate that the guy he spoke to wondered off saying “Pat the lion, not the monkey… wait, that’s not right… pat the monkey, not the lion…”
[/hijack]
When it’s adults who get themselves killed in similar ways, I just shrug. Isn’t there a bear up in some Alaskan zoo who’s eaten about three-four tourists in his career? I might just be remembering a dream there.
But a child, ugh. I agree, the parents need to be fed to the tiger.
eh. if i had to die a painful, horrible death by being eaten by a giant creature that only sees me as prey, i think i’d prefer a dragon. tigers just don’t cut it.
and not one of those wimpy “non-sentient lizard” type dragons, noooo, give me one of the sentient dragons that can carry a conversation, or are perhaps smarter than me!
but, all things considered, i do believe i would prefer to die in my deathbed at 93. (though being eaten by a dragon off my deathbed at 93 would be even better. i’m steeled for death, but it’s a really cool death when i was only expecting a rather calm, mild one. i’d still prefer immortality over all possible “death” options. {well, unless the “death” involves saving the world. i think i’d be ok with that.} )*.
*wow. a subset that was longer than the primary! that’s an accomplishment.
Don’t worry. Being killed by a tiger is just like going to sleep.
Inside a giant blender.
Anyone who knows enough about big cats to keep one as a pet without getting eaten should know that 3 year old children generally have a hard time not looking like prey.
I work in small animal veterinary medicine and as far as I know there is no other way to test an animal for rabies other than to have its head cut off. Is this somehow different for large animals?
Cyndar, you’re probably right. I do remember some people suggesting another type of test, but not any details (tissue testing? Bah, I can’t remember).
This case happened back in July and locally there was a lot of outrage about euthanizing the tiger because the mother of the child refused to let her daughter receive the rabies vaccinations, which would have spared the tiger’s life.
I confused the mother’s stubborness with another way to test. The tiger bit the girl, but dropped her when a keeper told him too.
-Yes. Binky the Polar Bear rather famously mauled as many as three people in two seperate events.
One woman, an Austrailian tourist, crossed over the guardrail and leaned up against the bars of the cage so somebody could get a better photo of her and Binky. Ol’ Binks reached out and nabbed the woman. He managed a few half-hearted bites before she got loose, though he did manage to keep her red running shoe. Which he then spent the rest of the day chewing on. 
Shortly thereafter, two or more teenagers or young adults broke in after hours. Nobody said why, but the assumption was “let’s go see the famous bear” or some such, augmented, as usual, with a little alcohol.
Anyway, they got into the cage- quite deliberately- whereupon 1,250-pound Binky started to play with his new toys. One person was mildly mauled, another much more so. The rest escaped. Rumor has it the badly mauled interloper… well… there’s no real easy way to say this… according to rumor, Binky chewed off his genitalia. As in the entire assembly.
There may have been one other event, but I can’t recall it at this moment. Binky, by the way, died a year or so after that, of… I think it was kidney failure.
punk 'nads are bad for the kidneys, i guess.
Sounds like a perfect candidate for a Darwin award.