Posted on 08/09/2006 10:13:41 AM PDT by Salgak
Five of the popular animals euthanized after girl, 9, is bitten
Public condolences poured into the Minnesota Zoo on Friday, as zoo visitors and staff mourned the deaths of an entire meerkat family.
Kids raced to the outdoor exhibit in Apple Valley and plastered their hands against the glass, only to find nothing inside. A small boy in a stroller wailed as his mother told him the creatures were away on vacation.
"This is a hard day. This was frustrating, sad and totally avoidable," said Tony Fisher, zoo collections manager. "People need to respect the barriers we put up to keep the public back. Instead, they try to climb over them, under them and around them."
The five meerkats were euthanized Thursday, a day after a 9-year-old girl reached her hand into the exhibit and w as bitten.
The meerkats — two adults and their three babies born in spring — were vaccinated for rabies, but state health protocol required that they be killed and tested because the girl's parents didn't want her to undergo a series of six painful rabies shots.
The meerkats did not have rabies, tests done at the Minnesota Board of Animal Health showed Friday.
"Although we knew there was just a minute chance they had rabies, we had no choice in this," Fisher said. "Of course, the public's safety comes first."
Well-wishers called the zoo all day, and the zoo's e-mail inboxes were filled to capacity with mostly sympathetic words, spokeswoman Kelly Lessard said.
The meerkats' deaths marks the first time an animal bit a guest and was put down at the zoo, Fisher said. Zookeepers have been bitten before, but always underwent the rabies shots.
Meerkats have been on display at the zoo since 2001 and are one of its more popular attractions. The animals, made famous in Disney's "The Lion King" movie, are 12-inch tall members of the mongoose family. They live in the Kalahari Desert of southern Africa, dwelling in elaborate underground tunnel systems.
"They are active, curious creatures. They live as a family unit," Fisher said.
Although not typically aggressive, they bite if they feel threatened. Keepers use gloves when handling them.
"We display exotic, dangerous species here at the zoo," Fisher said. "That's the business we are in."
Mary Wahl of New Brighton and her multitude of daycare charges headed straight for the meerkat exhibit Friday afternoon, only to find it barren.
"It's really too bad," Wahl said. "We love seeing them every year. They are so little and active."
She said the outdoor exhibit looked perfectly safe. "Parents need to watch their kids better," Wahl said. "And a 9-year-old really should know better."
But Eden Prairie mom Liz Schewe said she wasn't surprised the exhibit's barriers were bridged. She called herself an "overprotective mom" but said she has wondered about the exhibit's safety.
"It's definitely given me pause in the past," Schewe said. "My 4-year-old is a monkey, and he could probably climb right over."
The girl had to work to get her hand inside the enclosure. Zoo officials said she must have crawled over a driftwood barrier, climbed up more than 3 feet of artificial rock and reached over 4 feet of Plexiglas to get her arm into the exhibit.
Because meerkats stand just a foot tall on their hind legs, she had to have dangled her hand low for an animal to bite her finger, they said.
"The barriers seemed fairly obvious to us and we've gone five years where nothing happened," zoo communications director Sue Gergen said. "But kids are braver and the animals are cute."
The exhibit will be closed for at least a week, while additional barrier measures are added. Zoo staff was already working on the modifications Friday.
A second group of four male meerkats will be moved from an adjacent indoor exhibit to the outdoor one when the adjustments are complete.
The zoo hopes to bring in a female next year to restart the breeding process.
"We'll be starting over to get a new family group," Fisher said.
And PAIN ?? Maybe in the old days. . . Now, treatment for possible rabies exposure is:
Rabies immunoglobulin and the first dose of rabies vaccine should be given as soon as possible after exposure, with additional doses on days 3, 7, 14, and 28 after the first. The vaccinations are relatively painless and are given in one's arm, in contrast to previous treatments which were given through a large needle inserted into the abdomen.
Gee, 6 whole shots in the arm over a month. . .
Wouldn't having to take the shots be a better lesson for the kid?
Moronic parents...
The dose is huge and is more properly administered in the upper leg.
You're right. I'd have blistered the kid's behind, got the shots and been embarrassed as an parent. I've also had the rabies shot from a bite from a feral catr. It's eay nowadays. A tetanus shot, some other shots in the arm. No problems.
nooooooooooooooo, not meerkats!!!!!! meerkats are my special animal!
they ought to send the parents the bill - unsupervised child and all, perhaps get DCS involved - neglect?
In this case, the parents should be given rabies shots, to drive the point home.
Idiots.
How about a big sign on the empty cage saying the animals were destroyed because idiots couldn't keep their kids under control and then naming the offenders. A little public shame goes a long way.
While mom gabbed on the cell phone and ate her extra large serving of Dippin' Dots!
'Daddy, daddy, my math teacher gave me detention and extra homework!'
'It's okay, darling, she'll be dead by morning.'
Would they have been so quick to slaughter the animals if a panda had bitten the girl?
The odds are the zoo would get sued instead for millions for not doing an adequate job of keeping kids out and for not having enough signs up warning kids not to climb fenses and put hands where wild animals can bite them.
I wouldn't want my child to have any unnecessary vaccinations. On the other hand, I believe the parents should be made to reimburse the zoo in some way for the euthanized animals, and the girl should be punished for her behavior. She was old enough to know better.
Aw!! I love the meekats, too! Sounds like that stupid kid should be put on display in a cage with a sign regarding what NOT TO DO WHEN VISITING THE ZOO!
Now that I'll agree with. The parents should pay the cost of replacing the animals since they were destroyed as a result of their child's trespassing.
I go into department stores and see kids climbing up the wrong way on escalators. My first question is where are the parents.
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