Being killed by a dangerous wild animal is another part of life. I don’t feel sorry for her. It was what she chose. I am sure she will be missed. But that isn’t for me.
I’m not going into the weeds with you. I’ll just say that I guessed correctly that you only recently signed up here. I’d like to say ‘welcome to FR’ but I can’t.
I'm sorry but I can't help but feel there is a large unhealthy portion of ego involved ie 'I understand these animals and have a kinship with them etc.' It's all well and good to love animals as a kid and to want to become a vet, a marine biologist (how many times have we heard that one?), a zookeeper, etc. but I also see many of these people just a little too smug...they relate to the animals in ways us normal humans can't etc.
The reality is that these animals are the product of the evolution we are always hearing about and that means one thing has kept them alive through the centuries: INSTINCT. They don't see a cute and cuddly trainer: they see potential food. As long as they don't sense a threat to their food source, they are willing to call a truce but it's never the cute and cuddly let's-be-friends as portrayed in the media. Anyone who's watched a nature documentary knows that animals, especially big cats, can and will lose their 'temper' for no apparent reason and that squabbles that can lead to violence occur even within social groups, families, etc.
Speaking of instinct, humans that go home in one piece every day will tend to let their guard down the next day and the day after that. It's human nature. This sort of laxity is partially what killed Steve Irwin although he had plenty of chances before that to meet a swift and sudden demise.
Konweiser, a three-year veteran of the zoo and tiger expert
Expertise does not extend to mind-reading, especially of a wild animal.
was doing normal procedural actions with the tiger when it attacked her.
And here's the modern media doing their bit again with horrific grammar and sentence construction. Doing normal procedural actions??!?! What the hell does that even mean?
"Stacey was an expert," Carter said.
Again, that means absolutely naff-all to the animal.
"She dedicated her life to her mission of protecting tigers."
Not to put too fine a point on it but a tiger in a zoo is rather 'protected' already although the PETA wackos would say it's no protection at all. It's also a prisoner ie removed from its normal habitat (even if born in captivity) which zookeepers have long acknowledged can produce erratic, unpredictable behavior.