A captive Malaysian tiger, who refused to release the arm of a man who tried to pet it in a restricted area of a Florida zoo, died after a police officer shot him on Wednesday 29 December.
The man in his 20s, an employee of a cleaning company working for the zoo, was seriously injured and had to be hospitalized.
He had entered Wednesday evening after the closure to the public “in a prohibited area near a tiger which was in its enclosure”, specified the police of the county of Collier, where is the zoo of the city of Naples, in Florida.
The man then put his arm through an opening in the enclosure and “stroked or fed the animal”, according to initial police reports, when the tiger grabbed him.
After kicking the fence of the enclosure to try and get the feline to let go, the first policeman on the scene shot the tiger, killing the 8-year-old male called Eko.
A “useless” death
The zoo announced on its site the establishment for employees of psychological help facing “bereavement”.
On the zoo’s Facebook page, messages of support for employees and saddened comments abounded Thursday morning, lamenting the “unnecessary” death of a “magnificent tiger”.
