Tiger attacks kindergartner at Scotts Valley school

Sacramento Bee ^ | 9/20/02 | NA

[Carry_Okie]

SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif. (AP) - A tiger attacked a kindergartner at a school assembly Friday, sending the 6-year-old boy to a hospital.

The tiger was being led out of an auditorium at Baymonte Christian School by its trainer when it suddenly lurched over a row of seats and grabbed the boy by the head in its jaws, Scotts Valley Police Capt. Harry Bidleman said.

[ZULU]

I feel sorry for the kid. It was an experience he'll neer forget.

The handler should have been more careful.

As for Tigers, well, they act like Tigers.

Actually, read "The Man-Eaters of Kumoun" by Jim Corbett. Corbett tracked and killed man-eating tigers in British India in the early 1900's with a bolt action rifle - only three shots - only three chances. Some of them killed over five hundred people. His experiences were incredible and he draws vivid pictures. However, he did point out that in the wild, most tigers fear men or ignore them. The man-eating tiger was an abberation, a creature wounded by some injury and incapable of bringing down its normal game of deer or water buffalo, or a tiger raised from birth by a maneater, or a tiger acustomed to eating human flesh after a major catastrophe left large numbers of unburied bodies around. He left out situations where tigers have lost all fear of man as in situations like this.

Tigers should NOT be brought into close contact with the public, nor should they be declawed. If kept in a zoo, they should be maintained in large open outdoor enclosures designed to assure no possible contact between public and them may occur.

[joesnuffy]

Outlaw the game of "tag" and "dodge ball"...to protect "the children" but bring in tigers?

[dsutah]

But what about circuses? An animal could get loose in a circus, can it? I realize what you're saying, though. These cats are wild animals, and they can be unpredictable. But I'm wondering if there are special safeguards in a circus, that they didn't provide for in the school. Maybe having all those people sitting around, moving around a lot, that something triggered this cat to attack?

[willyone]

I seem to remember half a dozen or so srories of kids and adults being torn apart by dogs in the last couple of years. One Tiger attack and you all act like morons. Not a smart idea to bring the Tiger there without some more restraints. Hope the little guy gets well with no permanent damage. The Lion King was fiction as was Bambi. Parents need to teach that to their kids.

[hedgetrimmer]

How come we only read about this in a Sacramento newspaper? Did any local paper print it?

[hedgetrimmer]

I KNEW the Packards would be involved in this SOMEHOW. LOL

[CzarChasm]

old joke: How To Train a Cat

Show the cat what you want it to do.
Repeat this every day until the cat dies of old age.
And that is how you train a cat.

[willyone]

You are probably the kind of idiot that uses a twelve gauge on a rabbit. Can't be too careful. Look at the teeth on that rabbit. You want vermin go stare in the mirror. The handler is the one at fault. He should have read his animal better.

[Allrich Towing]

I think it's just like everything else. There are good tigers and there are bad tigers. ;>)

- Gin

[Chemnitz]

First of all, it was amazingly stupid. Secondly, why were there no stopgap measures in case something went wrong? If you want lit candles at a school, you better have plenty of fire extinguishers nearby. But a tiger. Obviously the handler was incompetent too. He let it happen. Sure he didn't mean to do it, but he failed to prevent it. And then the principal had to pry the kid loose? The whole episode was a walking... I won't say it.

[dsutah]

I remember some years ago, when that tiger-tamer, I think his name was Gunther Gebel Williams, was with the R.B.B.& B. Circus. He was in a magazine article. He said that he didn't use whips or other traditional animal training techniques.

He said he had a way of training them, to where he won the cat's trust, and he respected them, and what they could do(I'm paraphrazing, because I don't remember the way he put it.). He said at that time, he was going to retire soon, while he was at his best with the cats. He said that he couldn't afford to make the wrong moves with his big cats, because if he did, they could turn on him really quick. And then they could kill him.

He said also that so no one got the wrong idea about the way he trained the cats, he'd let the Humane Society watch him while he worked with them.

[HairOfTheDog]

A trainer that raises them and gains their trust is one thing, but allowing untrained and unfamiliar people mingle close and touch them is risky and not responsible. We don't need to see them walking on leashes among us to respect them... in fact, I think it gives us an image of them that is untrue and unnatural, which doesn't have a lot of educational value, except in this case, where we all learned a lot about them!

[dsutah]

Like you said, this is a good school; but they weren't using good judgment when they bring a wild, savage animal to school with a lot of people looking at it. They would've been better off just taking the school's kids to a zoo, or circus act. That big cat was probably nervous, and struck at the nearest target.

I must say I'm surprized about the handler himself. You'd think he would have exercised better judgment of bringing the big cat, at that size, into a school auditorium without more help or equipment. This article doesn't say whether the handler brought anybody with him as an assistant, or had brought something with him to keep the animal quiet or calm. Did the handler bring any special equipment with him to restrain the animal? This article begs many questions!

[Carry_Okie]

Im really interested as to whether the handler was female. It follows from all the other nonsensical thinking.

My wife recalls that she heard that in fact the handler was a woman.

Yes, it fits that feminist power trip, "I'm so much more sensitive that the powerful kitty loves me."

[sinkspur]

But I'm wondering if there are special safeguards in a circus, that they didn't provide for in the school.

Circuses surround wild animal acts with cages.

[dsutah]

"The Lady Or the Tiger", eh? I remember reading that story in school a long, long time ago!

[BnBlFlag]

If the tiger wanted to commit major harm to the child when he had the kid's head in its mouth, there would be much more damage than a few stitches could handle.

[Carry_Okie]

It shoulda been breaking news...

It's a four-inch gash.

He'll be released tomorrow.

Actually, the real reason this thread worked for our clearly wise and discriminating AM is that I posed a serious question re the Marxist/environmentalist/feminist culture that produces these "mishaps" from the git go...

Sigh. Why DO I have to explain these things?

[Carry_Okie]

If the tiger wanted to commit major harm to the child when he had the kid's head in its mouth, there would be much more damage than a few stitches could handle.

Patterson pulled him out first.

The cat was declawed. I don't think it was intent to kill as the cat has clearly never done so. Still the drive is there and perhaps the cat was merely an incompetent hunter.

Remember those tragi-comically pathetic scenes in "Born Free where they were teaching Elsa to hunt?

[Carry_Okie]

You'd think he would have exercised better judgment of bringing the big cat, at that size, into a school auditorium without more help or equipment.

My wife's recollection of the radio story is that the handler was a she and therefore clearly undersized for the job. Another question would be whether there was a proper harness or means of quick correction.