Tragedy all around

Today's lead news from San Francisco is the death of one and the mauling of two zoo visitors Christmas evening, just before closing time. The attack was made by a Siberian Tiger, Tatiana, who was killed by police officers as she approached them when they were trying to reach one of the victims. The zoo is closed today as investigators look for possible additional victims, and try to determine how Tatiana escaped her enclosure, which was fortified after she attacked one of the zookeepers almost a year ago.

This story resonates with me for two reasons.

One is that I know the zookeeper who was mauled last year. She is a tremendous woman who has extraordinary talent working with zoo animals. This story brings up the terrifying memories from then and the sadness today that it's not only happened again, but with a fatality. The road to recovery from such an attack is long and arduous. My heart goes out to the families who are enduring the loss and pain from yesterday's attack.

The second reason I keep thinking about this story is that we, as folks who relate to animals, can sometimes make the mistake that all animals are capable of co-existing with us. That is simply not true. An article from the UK outlines the risks of attempting to live with crocodiles, scorpions, poisonous snakes and spiders, etc, etc, that become the reason we visit the emergency room more often than we might otherwise. I'd like to think that such an episode makes people reevaluate the structure of their lives, and if they are endangering themselves and their wild animals, they can make changes now. That allows everyone, two- and four-footed, to live their lives fully and safely.