[rbbeachkid]

We went to a fundraiser when my youngest was 2 and a tiger was present. He was chained, but when my little one walked by the tiger started pacing. The handler told me to take my daughter away. She explained that the little one was “prey size.”

[Berlin_Freeper]

We need higher life form to design our zoos.

[Don W]

It is well known that cats play with their food. Anyone who thinks that the lion was “playing” is an idiot, especially since the cat pounced AFTER the child turned away.

Kitty wanted a snack. A glass wall got in the way.

[jonrick46]

I saw my sweet kitty, Beanie, notice a rat walking across our back lawn about ten feet from our deck. Suddenly, there was a leap. It was a serious leap. It was a ten foot leap; like a Superman leap. In one bound Beanie was on him. The rat tried to run but Beanie put his mouth right on his neck and bit down hard and shook that Rat real hard. This was not a playful bite. I heard a high pitch squeal and the Rad went limp. Beanie brought that dead Rat right up to the deck and laid his prize right at my feet. “Good Beanie!” I said. I think about it as a metaphor for how the Republicans will handle the Rats this November. They need a strong bite in the neck until they are dead. “Good Donald!” I will say.

[Olog-hai]

Do you think the lion was just playing? …

Sure. In the same way that Felis catus plays with birds and mice.

[Springman]

Bump for later.

[tdscpa]

Camera catches pictures.....

So,where are the pictures?

[Jonty30]

A lion’s definition of play is somewhat different from a person’s, but they aren’t going to hitting the glass unless it’s fun.

[Popman]

Zookeepers say the lion acts similarly each time he sees a small child, and simply wants to play with them.

LOL...

Mr. Lion thought his dinner bell had rung....

[The_Media_never_lie]

Why would anyone be surprised at this behavior?

A friend and his wife are boarding a teenager who was blinded as child by a large cat (tiger, etc.) his father kept in their home.

[Chewbarkah]

The management of this “zoo” requires replacement, and the “exhibit” requires redesign to make this sort of lunging impracticable. They are exploiting the lion’s prey drive to create a spectacle for public entertainment, at the risk of injury to the lion (and if it gets loose, of course the lion will be shot, not the zookeepers).

Big cats always eyeball children at zoos; they aren’t thinking about play, except the kind that precedes a meal, and the zookeepers know it. Tormenting a lion by parading tender morsels that close is inhumane and cynical.

[ETL]

Then there's this from last week...

‘Drunk’ zoo visitor leaps into lion enclosure to ‘shake hands’ with big cats

May 24, 2016
Nadia Judith Enchassi and Tribune Media Wire

HYDERABAD, India – An allegedly inebriated visitor found himself face to face with a female lion at a zoo in Hyderabad, India and somehow emerged with barely a scratch.

Identified as Mukesh, a 35-year-old rail worker from Rajasthan, the man later admitted to police he had been drinking before scaling the big cats’ enclosure inside the Nehru Zoological Park in Hyderabad Sunday evening, according to The Hindu.

Shocking video shows Mukesh ignoring the cries of others as he drops into the moat and wades toward the cats as a lioness named Radhika runs to the edge of the water.

“Please, come to me, my darling” he said, according to witnesses.

A male lion, Krishna, joined Radhika as the two eyed the intruder, who, hand outstretched, came within feet of the lions. ...”

http://kfor.com/2016/05/24/drunk-zoo-visitor-leaps-into-lion-enclosure-to-shake-hands-with-big-cats/

[TomGuy]

There is a TV commercial [for Expedia] of a similar scene:

Kid in tiger costume is with Dad at airport, going to some zoo.

The original commercial showed the kid at a glass wall and the real tiger encroaching and thusting toward the kid. The Dad is seen grabbing the kid somewhat and pulling her away from the glass.

After a while, the commercial was re-edited and the short segment of the tiger thrusting and Dad grabbing the kid was removed.

==

Frequently, original commercials get edited after a while. I suppose it is after the company receives complaints or focus-group results.

[Stentor]

Everyone knows that Hakuna Matata means chipped toddler on toast.

[Brookhaven]

All cats are simply waiting for you to die so they can eat you.

[muggs]

I think it was the Desert Museum in Tuscon, they had a warning sign about small children and if you notice any predator behavior to move the child from near the glass.