By: Muhammad Ibrahim Bhatti
It has been observed that at zoo visitors not only put the caged animals in trouble but sometimes also put their lives into danger. several incidents have been reported in the newspapers and television channels when visitors either harmed the caged animals or lost their lives. sometimes some horrible incidents happen and other visitors, friends and family members and even security officials cannot do any thing except just looking at the victims being mauled
In 1999, a bear killed a year-and-a-half-old child in the city zoo .
Afzal and Saima, residents of Sodiwal Lahore, came to the Lahore Zoo on
Sunday with their infant Abdullah. The child was attacked when the couple crossed the protective barrier set up to prevent such accidents. As soon as the couple was within reach, the bear pulled in the child from his mother’s arms. As the parents tried to pull the child back, the body of the ill-fated child tore into two; one part, eye witnesses said in the arms of the mother,
while the other in the jaws of the bear.
Similar kind of horrible indecent occurred in an Indian zoo in 2007. A 50-year-old man was savagely mauled to death by two tigers through the bars of their zoo cage as he tried to take a picture of them with his mobile phone.
The tourist was said to have clambered over a safety barrier in order to get a really good close-up picture of the Bengal tigers at the zoo in Guwahati in northeast India.
After he put his arm through the bars of the cage the two tigers attacked him and tore off his arm at the shoulder as his horrified wife and two children looked on helplessly.
It was an unfortunate accident and probably was a result of carelessness on the part of the man to have crossed the barricade.The man ignored warnings from keepers, crossed the first barrier and stretched his hand into the enclosure that housed.
In September 2014, an Indian school student was attacked and killed by a white tiger at a New Delhi zoo. The young man jumped over security barriers before falling over five meters into the tigers’ enclosure, where he was mauled to death.
The incident happened when the youngster, identified as Maqsood, fell or jumped into the enclosure. He was immediately confronted by the animal. Onlookers tried to throw stones at the tiger to distract it, but to no avail.
Despite being stopped by a security guard twice from jumping in, Maqsood did it anyway, when the guard’s attention was on other visitors.
Maddox Derkosh was a tragic two-year-old boy who was mauled to death by a pack of ravenous African wild dogs after he fell off a zoo railing his mother put him on to get a better view of the animals .
Maddox Derkosh had ‘no chance’ of surviving after falling 11 feet into the dog pit at the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium while his horrified parents Jason and Elizabeth Derkosh looked on helpless.
Desperate rescue attempts by zookeepers and armed police officers could not deter the 11 aggressive beasts as they savagely attacked the two-year-old, from Pleasant Hills.
There have been such incidents happened in the zoos throughout the world and almost all occurred due to negligence of warnings given by the zoo officials. So it is very much necessary that one must strictly follow the warnings and safety rules in the zoo if not for the sake of animals’ safety but at least one’s own life.