July 11, 2012
Suicide by tiger.
It's bad enough that human beings cage these magnificent animals in zoos. This is already exploitation. But to appropriate their grandeur for one's own scurrilous, self-murderous ends is truly disgusting.
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Even worse are people who jump from bridges into oncoming traffic.
I do like Tigers. Of course the only ones I've seen have been in cages, so I'm grateful for that opportunity. There is a place in IN that is a Tiger Rescue place for circus tigers that I went to. It's as close to a tiger as I'll ever get. The thing was in a cage with very high fences. The thing jumped at me. RROOAARR!!
Scared the bejesus out of me, even though I knew thre was no chance it would get out.
He may have gone to tigers to get himself killed or he may have gone to pet them. The article only speculates that suicide was his motive. I would think he went to pet them, to be one with them as the Bear man was to the bears and some shark petters and dolphin lovers are/were to their favorite funcreatures.
Maybe he thought he was the Tiger Whisperer.
I can't imagine anyone deciding to kill himself that way. Could he have done it to protest animals being caged?
Seigfried and Roy were unavailable for comment.
The suicide by walking out into the plains in Kenya "to be eaten by wild animals" is an African traditio... and sort of an act of surrendering to cruel nature.
But why should we feel disgusted? Is it a Enviro's religious demand that a mere human cannot disrespect Goddess gaia's sacred animals?
What kind of tigers are these, not to devour the man (which I suspect is what he wanted)?
Old Eskimos were exposed to the tender mercies of polar bears.
Suicide by bear?
My first memory of of seeing a real drunk person (contra Otis on "Andy Griffith") was at the zoo when I was probably 3 or 4 years old.
A loudmouth guy and his friend were yelling at the tigers. I remember noticing the beautiful orange markings of the big cats when he threw a crushed can (presumably beer) into the enclosure below that hit a large tiger's resting forearm.
The tiger snapped up and let out a loud roar.
The guy and his friend then walked through the now sneering crowd still yelling.
I couldn't understand why an adult would act that way, and didn't know it had anything to do with booze until later.
Why is there no outrage over the pandemic of self-rape?
The problem here is that he forced an innocent to commit a crime.
Considering the idea that ignorance of the law is no excuse, do we consider such acts by animals as crimes, or can only people commit crimes. Do we just call such things an "occurrance" like lightning?
Sounds like win win to me. Tigers get to actually kill something, suicidal man gets to die. So long as no children were watching, that is.
Do you actually think the tigers care? You obviously have never had a cat. Now the zoo personnel were probably pissed.
Even worse are people who jump from bridges into oncoming traffic
This.
to appropriate their grandeur...
So earnest, Ann! This made me laugh. Would it have been acceptable if he had chosen suicide by hyenas? They aren't grand at all.
As someone else pointed out, it isn't clear that it was suicide at all.
No indication this was suicide, only a guess on the part of the authorities.
Could just as likely have been a Darwin Award.
Ann Althouse said...
It's bad enough that human beings cage these magnificent animals in zoos.
Disagree, strongly.
Zoos may be one of the few ways to preserve them in a world of shrinking habitat.
As others have pointed out, the suicide angle is mere speculation. But assuming it's true, it seems weird to characterize the method as "scurrilous" (as though suicide is nothing more than ostentatious performance), and it seems anthropomorphically conceited to say that the (assumed) suicide "appropriate[s]" the "grandeur" of an animal that was acting according to its nature. Does the suicide who jumps from a majestic cliff "appropriate the granduer" of that geologic formation?
You're also very wrong about zoos. Though some zoos are poorly managed, animals in captivity fare, on average, much better than their counterparts in nature. For all its exalted "grandeur," nature is BAD for animals:
http://www.utilitarian-essays.com/suffering-nature.html
Maybe he had that cat virus.
The zoo animals are totally dependent on the Government. But even they don't like being imprisoned and denied the challenge to hunt.
Suicide by Honey Badger woud've been the honorable thing. They don't give a shit!
I'm startled by the odd and misplaced disgust at the "appropriated grandeur" of the tigers, rather than concern fore the person who would be so emotionally distraught or mentally disturbed as to climb into a tiger cage.
What grandeur do the tigers retain locked up in a zoo for us to gawk at, rather than living in their natural habitat?
Ann,
It's bad enough that human beings cage these magnificent animals in zoos.
Spare me your tedious and foolish moralizing on tigers. Dogs and cats are as magnificent as these animals, but I'm sure you don't oppose their exploitation as pets. Cows and pigs are magnificent animals as well, but you don't go on spouting hippy douche baggery about their exploitation.
These animals are going extinct because of your liberal doucheness at not letting them be exploited. Give people a profit incentive to save them and voila, they will be saved. Instead, your hippy doucheness gets in the way, so instead of farms where they are bred for their fur, teeth, etc. they are poached into extinction.
Nice, first grade thinking on your part. Aren't you supposed to be a law professor or something? Try thinking in a meaningful way about things like this. You do it often enough on many other things, yet your hippy bullshit side (childish and reflexive immaturity) shows way too often.
Try thinking in a meaningful way about things like this.
Yes. Think deeply.
Excellent, Ken.
According to Armstrong and Getty, tigers in the San Francisco zoo are kept in by the honor system.
Well, if there were no zoos, then this wouldn't have happened.
Althouse needs to get away from Madison more.
It is as likely, or even more likely, that he was an envirofreak that climbed in to be one with nature and show his solidarity wit the oppressed.
I don't understand why suicide is necessarily a bad thing. We all die, why not pick exactly when and how you die instead of leaving it to chance? When you are getting near to the end of your life, why suffer needlessly and force your family to watch you suffering?
I don't get the Althouse concern for the tigers, pretty sure they were happy to kill the guy.
The workers who had to go into the cage and pick up the remains probably hated it. Working with the tigers probably got a lot tougher now that they have tasted human blood.
Tigers will soon be extinct in the wild, there may be less than 400 left, so I don't see how anyone could object to keeping them in zoos.
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