Zoo Attack in Pittsburgh

[Rachellove9]

http://t.news.msn.com/us/update-2-year-old-boy-killed-at-pa-zoo-exhibit

This is what is going on in my zoo. 
I go there all the time and keep a membership.
I am so sad over this.

It's so sad to me to have a mother lose her child.
The by-standers that watched this will forever be changed.
I just can't believe this happened as I have been to that exhibit a hundred times.
It never really seemed unsafe to me.

I only posted this cause it is so disturbing to me.
These animals are endangered and likely now will be put down.

Has anyone else had a zoo fatality in their area?
I'll be watching this also from a legal point to see how it all plays out.

[Wayshow]

First, it's the mother's fault who decided not to hold on to her child that she put on the railing... It's like standing up on a water slide, falling, then blaming the officials for getting hurt.
Second, the animals were acting normally. If you throw a hurt animals at a pack of canines, then expect them to attack....
The animals probably won't get put down. If they do, then any animal which may attack human beings will have to get put down.

[Randy]

Wow. I can't even imagine what everyone there went through when this happened. Tragic.

[Rachellove9]

I'm not saying the mother didn't do the wrong thing.
She will live with that, but my heart goes out to her even in her mistake.
They are doing an update at 1:00 on channel 2 if anyone is in our area.
If they don't put the animals down, I would expect they will be moved to some other zoo or reserve.

I'll post again when I hear an update later.

[Kevin]

Heard this on the news ... I think if I were one of the parents I would be traumatized for the rest of my life. How can you live with that guilt - and there's no way any parent wouldn't blame themselves for this.

[Mister Kyle]

I hope the mother knows it's her fault and never forgets it. No remorse for stupidity.

[Pacman Syu]

Heard this on the news ... I think if I were one of the parents I would be traumatized for the rest of my life. How can you live with that guilt - and there's no way any parent wouldn't blame themselves for this.

Yep... I just wonder what she was thinking. It just sounds mindless to me. Either way my heart goes out to her.

[Wind_Arcus]

Heard this on the news ... I think if I were one of the parents I would be traumatized for the rest of my life. How can you live with that guilt - and there's no way any parent wouldn't blame themselves for this.

Yep... I just wonder what she was thinking. It just sounds mindless to me. Either way my heart goes out to her.

I'm just wondering how the father feels. Considering his wife "basically" killed his son by accident.

[Rachellove9]

Update so far is that the dogs will not be put down. 
The exhibit is closed til Spring and may or may not reopen.

Have not seen the mother or father yet on the news.
A lady that works with the mom came on and said that she was a good mother.
They showed a picture of the little boy tonight and that was really sad.

The zoo had an inspection in Sept and had gotten an outstanding rating.
They are going to be reinspected now to check on if they did something wrong.
They had three eyewitnesses talk about what they saw but they didn't show faces.
They will likely have to be in court at some point.
The boy was alive when he was mauled by the dogs.
So legally the zoo could be charged for his death. 

No one can make that mother feel worse than she will make herself feel.
It showed their home with a little truck on the porch and flowers that the neighbors had left.
It said family and friends were with them at the zoo.
The father arrived from what I could tell shortly after the attack ended.
It was their only child.

People are blaming the zookeepers for not going in to save the boy.
They shot the animals with tranquilizers and threw shovels and rakes to distract them.
It wasn't safe for them to go in and there would of been more fatalities.
It all happened in less than 5 minutes and the zookeeper was like 10 feet away from the cage when it began.

No parent is flawless or free from making mistakes.

[Wind_Arcus]

I also don't think the Zoo should be charged for this, as you already said, they did everything in there power to safely distract the dogs without more fatality's. This was just a big mistake.

[Al]

I talked with Rachel about this in the IRC earlier.

So when I was younger my family used to do this with me. They'd put me on dangerous rail to take a picture, and it scared the hell out of me. Long made short, just don't do it with your children (in the future, perhaps). It's really scary and it bothered me.

[TE-XFairy]

Was this on untame and uncut? 2 year old boy :(

[Dratz]

What kind of fool puts their TWO year old child on a rail and LETS GO.. knowing that on one side of the rail is at least a 6ft drop to a pack of wild animals? Think about that for a second.

[Rachellove9]

The quick update on this.

The parents asked for anyone that wanted to send flowers to instead send construction truck toys.
All the toys were donated to help for Christmas.

Then I heard that lawyers got involved and are bringing a case against the zoo.
The claim is that the zoo did not respond quickly enough.
The end time for the situation was 5 minutes and 25 seconds.

I'm rather disturbed that the family is going to try to make money from the loss of their child.
Those zoo keepers are forever changed by this death.
You can see the remorse on the Dr. in charge of the zoo.
She looks completely drained and sick over the entire situation as they press her for answers.
This mother is going to have to answer questions in court that she may not be prepared to face.
It seems like a very unkind thing for the family to put her through.
Some times in tragedy it should not be about who was right or wrong, but that the child is gone forever.......

[btraill]

So awful....It's a tragic accident. I cannot even begin to understand how that Mother must feel.

I just can't wrap my head around a mother placing their 2 year old son on a fence that is elevated over a pack of dangerous wild dogs... An 11 foot fall. Wow.