The decision to shoot two tigers dead that attacked and killed an animal keeper in Xichuan county, Central China’s Henan Province, was made out of safety concerns for local villagers after failing to trap the tigers on the loose, the local forestry bureau said on Tuesday. The tourist spot where the incident took place has been closed for further investigation.
The animal keeper at the spot, surnamed Jia, was bitten by the tigers on Tuesday morning and taken to hospital, but later died of severe injuries.
The tigers escaped from the scene, but were soon found, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Tuesday. Local authorities immediately launched an emergency response plan and evacuated nearby residents.
The public security department and the county’s forestry bureau urgently dispatched tranquilizer guns to capture the tigers, which were then taken to the site by a special team, CCTV News reported on Tuesday.
However, the team members found themselves unable to approach the tigers. A range of other measures to capture the animals were then attempted, such as using chickens containing anesthetics as bait, but turned out to be unsuccessful.
Professional animal trainers were called in to guide the tigers, but that idea was abandoned as the anesthesia needle could only be injected from within 5 meters, which at the time was too risky.
During the process, the tigers had become increasingly irritable, showing an obvious tendency to attack and posing a serious safety threat to the team. Fearing that they might run into the woods where some villages were located, the tigers were eventually shot dead with the approval of higher departments.
The scenic spot is now closed for further investigation, the forestry bureau stated, and the bodies of the animals will be dealt with according to laws and regulations.
The tiger attack in Henan came less than three days after another zookeeper was killed on Sunday after being attacked by a tiger in Bengbu, East China’s Anhui Province, prompting heated discussions on social media platforms over proper management and emergency response measures at animal parks.
Netizens on China’s Twitter-like Sina Weibo questioned if the animal keepers had been treating the tigers badly at the circus, where they were trained before being taken to the Henan scenic spot. Others criticized the park for not having prepared effective emergency response plans that could have stopped the attack in a more timely manner.
Photo:Xinhua
