On Christmas day last year, a young man was killed at the San Francisco zoo. He and two of his peers were attacked by a Siberian tiger, Tatiana. Early reports indicated two things: (1) that the wall surrounding the tiger enclosure may have been too short; and (2) that the young men may have been taunting Tatiana before her attack. Both suppositions have proven to be true. It was also revealed that the young men had been drinking vodka and smoking marijuana prior to leaving for the zoo. One of them was legally intoxicated.
Here is the way I see it. There were two tragedies that night. Both involved Darwin in action. The greater was that the tiger was killed. Siberian tigers are very rare and are to be treasured. Sadly, as powerful as they are, they are no match for humans with guns, radio equipment, and vehicles. The lesser of the two tragedies was that Tatiana was only able to kill one of her three taunters prior to her own demise.
Now, this will likely not be a popular viewpoint on my part, but I can live with that. If you are so stupid, so wretched as to taunt a tiger to the point where it will climb a giant wall and attack you, you deserve to die. What is more, humanity needs you out of the gene pool.
One of these "men" got what he deserved. I have no idea what California laws the other two may have broken, but I hope that there are some that will punish them severely.
17 January 2008
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