Kitty
Posted on 05/12/2007 8:29:57 PM PDT by Omega Man II
Sun 13 May 2007
'Pet' tiger mauls woman to death
PAT WILDE
A 32-YEAR-OLD woman was mauled to death by a tiger at an exotic animal farm in British Columbia, Canada, while children looked on in horror.
Tanya Dumstrey-Soos spoke with her fiancé Kim Carlton, who owns the farm, by mobile phone as she lay dying.
"Before she passed away Kim did say that he did have a chance to talk to Tanya," said Scott Nelson, who employed Dumstrey-Soos as a receptionist and saleswoman at the Advisor newspaper in the town of 100 Mile House, British Columbia.
"He said the two were able to say they loved each other and he was obviously horrified."
Nelson, the mayor of Williams Lake, British Columbia, said that Dumstrey-Soos and Carlton had recently become engaged to be married.
The woman was found outside the tiger's cage when emergency services arrived at the farm on Thursday evening, said Royal Canadian Mounted Police corporal Scott Ksionzyk in 100 Mile House.
'Before Tanya passed away Kim had a chance to talk to her. They said they loved each other'
"There is no indication that the tiger was outside of the cage; nor is there any indication that the victim entered the cage," Ksionzyk said.
Nelson said Carlton described a bizarre, freak accident involving a tiger named Gangus.
Carlton "didn't think the tiger had bitten her," Nelson said. "She had a dress on and she was standing there and he was playing with the dress and grabbed her legs. She was standing outside the cage and talking to Gangus, who swatted her legs."
He said Gangus was the only one of the three tigers on the farm not to have been declawed.
A number of youngsters, including one of Dumstrey-Soos' children, witnessed the attack, said Constable Annie Linteau of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. It is believed Carlton's children, Dakota, 12, and Kodiak, 15, also saw her being mauled.
"We were obviously horrified, more horrified that the young kids saw it, that they were there and obviously our hearts are with them," Nelson said.
Regional coroner Bruce Chamberlayne said Dumstrey-Soos was taken to a hospital in 100 Mile House after the attack but could not be revived.
The farm, at Bridge Lake in the interior of British Columbia, is called Siberian Magic. Carlton stages exotic and magic shows and also sells services such as photographs with the big cats.
The RCMP said all the animals - including the three tigers, a lion and a lemur - remained secured on the premises, 25 miles east of 100 Mile House.
After the incident, British Columbia Agricultural Minister Barry Penner said authorities would determine whether there was a need to change regulations that allowed private citizens to keep exotic animals. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has called for legislation to ban the practice.
Siberian Magic's website invites people to visit the Bridge Lake facility to experience "the wonderful worlds of magic and exotic animals." The farm is about 250 miles north east of Vancouver.
"Visit our animals up close and personal," invites the website. "Capture the memories and have your photo taken with our amazing Siberian tiger, Kisa, or our African lion, Sarmoti, as well as many other wonderful animals."
The site claims the company educates people about exotic animals in a "safe, enjoyable way."
Marcie Moriarty, who is the general manager of cruelty investigations for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, described the facility which houses the wild animals as a "public safety catastrophe".
"The tigers are being kept in 12-foot square (3.6 metres square) chain-link enclosures with a mere padlock on the enclosure. The animals' owner had admitted to walking the tigers, his kids feed them," she said.
Carlton had been under investigation by the SPCA since November 2005 when he moved his tigers to the 100 Mile House area, Moriarty confirmed.
After notifying regional authorities about their concerns, the SPCA tried for months to seize the animals but there was not any room at any facility, including the Calgary Zoo, to take them.
"The use of exotic animals in entertainment is simply playing with fire," Moriarty said.
Erin Kincaid, event manager for the Bearfoot Bistro in the ski resort of Whistler, had considered having one of the tigers at an annual masquerade event in November 2005.
But criticism from locals and animal rights campaigners persuaded her that she should drop the idea.
"We were just unfamiliar with the fact that so many people felt so strongly against it," Kincaid was last night reported as saying.
Commenting on the death, she added: "More than anything my heart goes out to the tiger. I really hope it doesn't end up having to pay for this because this is not the tiger's fault at all. I truly believe that it's how they keep them."
Risin' up, back on the street
Did my time, took my chances
Went the distance, now I'm back on my feet
Just a man and his will to survive
So many times, it happens too fast
You change your passion for glory
Don't lose your grip on the dreams of the past
You must fight just to keep them alive
CHORUS:
It's the eye of the tiger, it's the thrill of the fight
Risin' up to the challenge of our rival
And the last known survivor stalks his prey in the night
And he's watchin' us all in the eye of the tiger
Face to face, out in the heat
Hangin' tough, stayin' hungry
They stack the odds 'til we take to the street
For we kill with the skill to survive
CHORUS
Risin' up, straight to the top
Have the guts, got the glory
Went the distance, now I'm not gonna stop
Just a man and his will to survive
CHORUS
The eye of the tiger...
Darwin nominee.
I totally disagree. Wild animals should be in the wild. I can’t stomach zoos nor would I ever go to a circus. A dear friend trained for circus performances and worked with Barnum and Bailey. The animals are treated cruelly. He couldn’t take it.
IF animals must be in a zoo for some reason, to be humane it should be one of those kinds that is like a wild preserve, where they have a natural environment. To be on display all the time in a cement cell is inhumane. I’ve seen a lot of animals who’ve gone insane in zoos - pacing back and forth, back and forth, with horrible expressions in their eyes. Rubbing bald patches, wierd habits, they’re not happy. So what if their fur is shiney?
I’m not anthropomorphizing animals; but I know they have emotions and can feel pain.
The actors think they are safe. But tiger could still break a neck or an arm with one swat or bite, and drag the actor all over the set.
And have fun doing every bit of it, with no remorse whatsoever.
"But I have special relationship with the Tiger,"is the height of ignorance and egotism, turning humans into a simple rump steak.
Relating with Tigers needs one thing understood. Tiger is predator, human is prey, and nothing you can do or say can change that natural order of things. Given that understanding, one would hardly want to disrespect such a magnificent being and natural force, by caging it, or anthropomorphizing it.
I mean we could set up a game preserve fenced in a 40 mile swath along our Southern Border and fill it with Tigers Lions and deer.
El Gato Americano!
Burp!
I agree with your comments although I am not a hunter.
Black holes of suffering is right. Zoos are just prisons for animals who have done no wrong.
And for that matter, since I worked on the Cuban Prisoner's Project back at the time of the Mariel Boatlift, sorting out the political prisoners from the criminals, I spent a good deal of time in the Atlanta pen, and a couple of the guys assigned to me were fellows it would make you shiver in your boots to be alone in the room with (although with an interpreter and a corrections officer within call, it still would have been too late for me . . .)
Your position is hyperbolic. Certainly there are animals that do not do well in captivity -- as Kipling said, "Some - there are losses in every trade - /Will break their hearts ere bitted and made, /Will fight like fiends as the rope cuts hard, /And die dumb-mad in the breaking-yard."
But I have seen contented animals in captivity in the revamped Atlanta zoo, and in the National Zoo in Washington, as well as some of the open air situations like Wild Kingdom. The old-fashioned concrete-and-bars zoos are thankfully passing away and will not be missed. Since I have worked with animals my entire life, I'm confident I can tell the difference between a terminally bored, anxious obsessive captive and a bright-eyed soft-coated calm animal.
Of course the animals are dependent on the good will and competence of their keepers, and those who do not care well for the wild animals under their charge deserve the scorn and reproach of everybody. But living in a decent zoo is better than dying slowly with a poacher's underpowered AK bullet in them. Capstick told us about the encroachment of "civilization" (read subsistence farmers) on the game preserves in Kenya and other African countries, with the resultant near extinction of many species. For that matter, it beats being a South Georgia deer with the browse line at 46 inches and climbing.
P.S. . . . everybody who happens to disagree with you is not necessarily (1) ignorant; (2) a liberal. Pass the word.
“There is no indications that the tiger was outside of the cage; nor is there any indication that the victim entered the cage”
Looks like a case for Muldur and Scully.
Zoos are improving, the Atlanta zoo was repulsive for many years but has had a complete makeover. And unfortunately with the political instability and expanding populations of many third world countries (where many of the most endangered species live) the zoos are the last refuge of some of the rarest animals.
Thanks for your input; I can only agree with your additional comments. Let’s say in a perfect world, my point would stand. But it is far, far from a perfect world.
I would’ve really hoped it would be common sense not to keep a tiger as a “pet”. I guess I overestimated human brain power once again...
Cool! A liger.
yup. a big one
Those children! It’s impossible to imagine the emotional pain of young kids who saw such a horror. Prayers for their peace and comfort.
Agreed, of course, but God help me for supressing a smile. Would a fiction novelist even think of a couple of characters, Dakota and Kodiak Dumstrey-Soos, whose obviously unconventional backgrounds included the fact that as small children, they saw their mother mauled to death by her pet tiger?
As Rush would say, "You can't make this stuff up."
In other words:
Tiger follows it nature and mauls its captor
I feel sorry for the tiger. He's screwed no matter what.
Yep. Agreed.
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