That’s correct, there needs to be some test of brain matter in the animal to confirm rabies. Here is a cite.
Awww. 
Why? Can’t they just remove a small sample of brain tissue for a biopsy and test that?
Yes, it would involve tranquilizing the animal and drilling a small hole in the skull, and thus would be expensive, but these are valuable wild animals, sometimes endangered species. I’d think a public zoo could mount a quick fundraising campaign to cover these expenses.
Heck, if we can bring in money from internet contributions at the rate of $10,000 per hour for 4 days after a Congresswoman makes a stupid statement, what could a “donate to save the live of the Lion in our zoo” campaign do?
Me too.
Ugh, I was really hoping I had remembered that incorrectly.
:mad: Stupid kid, stupid parents.
What am I, a veterinary surgeon? I dunno. 
You gonna give a basket full of meerkats brain surgery and set up a recovery ward for them? I imagine meerkat surgeons are kinda hard to find.
I’m waiting for a zoo to say to parents like this, “I’m sorry but we’re not destroying any animals because you couldn’t control your child. She can get the rabies shots if you’re so concerned about her.”
Yeah, I know they won’t, but I still hope. 
That was Binky, the polar bear in Alaska.
The silly woman who got hurt did, in my opinion, redeem herself somewhat after the incident. I saw an interview in which she said that she was entirely at fault, don’t blame the bear, what I did was stupid.
I’m not finding it via Google, but there was an incident on the central coast of California a few years ago. A woman ignored all the signs and approached one of those ginormous elephant seal bulls at a seal rookery on the beach. Surprise! She was attacked and lost an arm - whether it was bitten off or had to be surgically removed because it was shredded, I don’t remember.
Good Lord, those bastards are huge and scary. No one could pay me enough to get closer than a hundred yards away.
Probably, but they shouldn’t be the ones who had to pay for it.
Reminds me of an old knock-knock joke:
P: Knock, knock.
M: Who’s there?
P: Panda.
M: Panda who?
P: (with vicious bite) Panda freakin’ Bear, you moron!
Did anyone else find what the bystanders were doing HILARIOUS? They were smacking (more like fanning) the bear with thin, leafy green tree branches that seemed to have about the mass and rigidity of one of those floaty pool noodles. I can’t imagine it even occurred to the bear that they were trying to hurt it. Poke the damn thing in the eye, its mouth and hands are occupied!
Meerkats aren’t endangered, though. So it probably would be more trouble than it’s worth to the zoos to do meerkat brain surgery. It would probably be different if it were gorillas or amur leopards or something, but there are lots of meerkats and they can probably get new ones without too much fuss.
Still, fuck them. It’s ridiculous to put any animal down just so that a kid who was acting like an idiot doesn’t have to get a shot. Also, nine is plenty old enough to know better even if the parents weren’t watching. It’s not like she was a preschooler or something. They shouldn’t have to perform brain surgery on the little guys in the first place. The kid should have had to take the shot or risk rabies and the zoo should have said, “too bad, it was your fault.”
Also, I hate the “people bothering animals” shows too. Including reruns of the Crocodile Hunter. People can be such morons, treating animals like they’re toys and not living things. And then the animal gets pegged as a man-eating savage because they responded to provocation. When an animal invades a human’s space and threatens a human’s safety, humans fight back too and sometimes kill. Or kill unprovoked, sometimes just for the hell of it. If I were to be camping and have a bear show up, I would consider him a threat no matter what his real intention was, so why is it hard to understand that animals are the same way? Even if we just want to pet them, how are they supposed to know that? Even with the serious threat removed, I don’t think I would like being teased, having strangers in my space, having people shouting at me and banging on the windows to my home, etc. so it makes sense to me that animals might not like it either. They’re not machines or toys and they should be treated with respect.
Fortunately, you don’t have to look far. Only above, to post #8. 
This quote from your link makes this whole thread worthwhile!