May 22, 2016

"A man who climbed into a lion enclosure, stripped naked and taunted them into attacking him was shot with a tranquiliser dart by zookeepers..."

They were trying to save him, and in the end they did, by killing the lions.
Zookeepers responded at first by turning a hose on the animals, then by firing a tranquiliser dart – but hit the man in the neck instead of the lions. As the lions set upon the man, a zookeeper opened fire with live rounds. The two beloved animals died in front of a horrified and massive holiday crowd.
In Santiago, where there was candlelight vigil last night for the lions. 

43 comments:

Quaestor said...

Spare the lions. Shoot the moron.

MAJMike said...

Idiot.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Makes doctor assisted suicide look a lot more rational.

James Pawlak said...

Rational policies, saving tax-payers moneys, would have allowed the lions to feed.

Fernandinande said...

Poor lions.

Better pictures here: "He was screaming religious things."

FullMoon said...

Punks throw rocks at tigers, ends badly:Public sentiment about 100/1 for tiger.
"On December 25, 2007, Tatiana escaped from her open-air enclosure at the San Francisco Zoo and attacked three visitors shortly after closing time.[9][10] After escaping from the tiger grotto, the cat killed one patron, Carlos Eduardo Sousa Jr., who was 17 years old at the time of his death, and injured two brothers, Amritpal "Paul" Dhaliwal, who was 19, and Kulbir Dhaliwal, 23.

The brothers fled to the zoo cafe approximately 300 yards (270 m) away and, according to initial reports, left a trail of blood that the tiger followed. Paul Dhaliwal began screaming outside the locked Terrace Cafe, prompting an employee to call 9-1-1 at 5:07 pm.[11]

Police response was initially delayed, in part because cafe personnel who called the police voiced suspicions that perhaps the allegations of an animal attack were being made by a mentally unstable person. When the police and fire crews arrived at the zoo, they were further delayed by zoo security guards who were enforcing a lockdown so that the tiger would not escape the zoo grounds.

Carlos Sousa was found near the tiger grotto by a zoo employee who remained with him until rescue crews arrived.[12] The scene was chaotic, and 13 minutes after the initial 9-1-1 call, police officers and fire department paramedics reached Carlos Sousa's body and found his throat slashed or punctured.[11] His autopsy later revealed that he had blunt force injuries of the head and neck, many punctures and scratches to his head, neck and chest, skull and spinal fractures, and a cut to his jugular vein.[13]"

buwaya said...

Famous case in SF indeed. They modified the enclosures so they are now much more troublesome for photographers.

David Begley said...

Drunk woman tried to pet the lions - after the zoo was closed - on Halloween. Great mug shot of her.

David Begley said...

Sorry. It as a tiger. It bit her hand.

chickelit said...

Why couldn't they have tranquilized everything? Did they run out of darts?

Dust Bunny Queen said...

I find myself firmly on the side of the lions. First of all, they didn't want to be there, in a zoo. Then some deranged guy turns himself into a piece of meat and begs to be eaten. The bored and already irritated lions just shrug and say.....'mkay.

They should have let it play out to the inevitable end. Guy gets what he wants......death. Lions get what they want....a hunting experience and LUNCH! Spectators get what they deserve....a dose of reality that the lions are wild animals not cute pets.

Etienne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dust Bunny Queen said...

@ Chick

Tranquilizers take some time to activate. The groggy lions would have just continued to maul and play with their food. The guy was probably toast already before the tranquilizers were used.

"Nature, red in tooth and claw.”



mockturtle said...

While in Alaska last summer, I saw a guy on an ATV closely following a grizzly at the side of the road. I drove on, not knowing the outcome, but hoping the bear would at least turn and scare the shit out of this moron.

Etienne said...

I wonder if he was homosexual or a she-male, and not really a man. I mean, being called a man or a woman is so polarizing today.

Ann Althouse said...

Thanks for the clearer pictures.

The male lion decided to eat the face and the female lion went for the genitals.

Bob Boyd said...

The guy was a Christian who suddenly one day found himself in agreement with the Romans.

n.n said...

#CecileTheCannibal

Etienne said...

Wasn't there a famous serial killer who killed young boys to cook them. He said he always liked the rump roast best.

I was thinking of him when I saw the lioness going for the rump roast.

But I think you're right she seems to be going for the giblets.

Unknown said...

For once people deciding to memorialize the animals over the human have gotten it right.

jr565 said...

They should have shot the man with the live rounds then let the animals eat his carcass. THEN killed the lions because once they get a taste for human flesh they will want to eat it more and more.

Freeman Hunt said...

"The shooter decided to save the life of the person..."

I'm glad the shooter was more sane than this statement writer. Decided? As if it were a question.

William said...

It's good that they shot the man with a tranquilizer dart. Being eaten by lions is an intensely disturbing experience and you need all the tranquilizers you can get to maintain your composure.

Big Mike said...

So now each zoo has redesign their enclosures not only to keep dangerous animals in, but to keep deranged people out. That may be pretty expensive.

Dust Bunny Queen said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dust Bunny Queen said...

"The shooter decided to save the life of the person..."

I'm glad the shooter was more sane than this statement writer. Decided? As if it were a question

Well....at some point the return on investment is a lost cause. Sunk cost fallacy. The guy was likely toast, or lunch to be exact, at this point and it was a bad choice to sacrifice the lions, who did nothing wrong, over a half dead carcass.

A waste of two innocent living beings over one who deliberately threw his own life away.

Zach said...

It's good that they shot the man with a tranquilizer dart. Being eaten by lions is an intensely disturbing experience and you need all the tranquilizers you can get to maintain your composure.

Dr. Livingstone, who was attacked by a lion in Africa, remarked that when he was in the lion's jaws, he felt very calm and peaceful (probably due to the adrenaline surge). Being a missionary, he thought that was an example of God's mercy towards prey animals.

Freeman Hunt said...

People > Lions

People don't let lions eat people. Not even the dead bodies of people.

I think that's a good bright line.

JPS said...

Freeman Hunt:

Generally I'd agree with you, but this case really strains the principle for me. I'm tempted to say he was dead as soon as he climbed in there. The zoo people had a moral obligation to try to get him out in time. I'm not convinced they had a moral obligation to kill two lions to save him from the fate he'd carefully tried to meet.

You scoff at the statement that the shooter "decided" to kill the lions to save him, as if it should be so automatic as to not require a decision. Well, I'm sorry: If I were the shooter, it would have taken a good moment for my thinking brain to convince my heart of the decision. I would have killed the lions - and cursed this guy for the rest of my life, and done what I could within the law to make him miserable, for putting me in that position.

I'm sorry he was depressed to the point of suicide. That didn't give him the right to take it out on anyone else, magnificent captive animals included.

Ann Althouse said...

Killing the lions does teach people that their effort to commit suicide by animal will hurt the animal. That's a good deterrent, I am guessing, on the theory that these disturbed humans feel charitably toward the animal.

Joe said...

"...because once they get a taste for human flesh they will want to eat it more and more."

This claim is oft repeated, but is it remotely true?

Original Mike said...

"People > Lions"

Not in this case, IMO.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Joe said...
"...because once they get a taste for human flesh they will want to eat it more and more."

This claim is oft repeated, but is it remotely true?

I've found it to be true, as a general rule.

William said...

If I were a zookeeper I would just as soon not work around lions that had tasted human flesh.......Also, pehaps I'm being homophobic but if my genitals were being devoured by a lion, I would prefer it to be a lioness.

Zach said...

I don't know if it's a taste for human flesh that's the problem, or just the lion registering humans as a prey animal.

The Man-Eaters of Tsavo is a really interesting book about a couple of lions who started hunting railroad workers in Africa (it was made into the movie The Ghost and the Darkness). They ended up taking between 28 and 135 workers before they were killed.

Zach said...

The Man-Eaters of Tsavo is also a surprisingly comprehensive guide for a would-be big game hunter in turn of the century Africa, complete with suggestions for caliber and local contacts for arranging a safari. Sometimes it's a race between Col. Peterson and the two lions to see who can kill more faster.

cacimbo said...

I completely agree with Dust Bunny Queen.

Why not respect the mans right to chose.

William said...

Please do not read my previous comment as being in any way an endorsement of Hillary Clinton.

rcocean said...

Althouse has it right. You don't want people to think "suicide by Lion" is an option. So you had to save the loony even if Fred and Ethel Lion got killed.

I hope the guy who shot the lions doesn't get death threats, like the poor dentist who shot Cecil.

rcocean said...

The Man-Eaters of Tsavo is a great book. IRC, the Lions found railroad workers to be quite a tasty treat and had to taught that bi-peds are dangerous prey.

Paul Snively said...

Yeah, sorry, not buying the "mentally ill person who wanted to die over innocent lions." If you want the mentally ill suicidal person not to suffer, I understand that. So shoot him. But killing the lions for being lions in their own cage is immoral.

SteveBrooklineMA said...

What's so special about lions anyway? Are they somehow "better" than bison or hares or anteaters? What about cows and pigs? What's the big deal? I never saw The Lion King. Maybe that's my problem.

Alex said...

Can't wait to start feeding the Christians to the lions again!