Tiger nearly bites volunteer's arm off
at Florida cat sanctuary run by
Carole Baskin from 'Tiger King'
ABC News,
by
Julia Jacobo
Original Article
Posted By: Hazymac,
12/4/2020 8:34:26 AM
A tiger attacked and seriously injured a volunteer at a big cat sanctuary in Tampa, Florida, run by Carole Baskin, who was featured prominently in the Netflix docuseries "Tiger King."
The Big Cat Rescue volunteer, Candy Couser, was feeding a tiger named Kimba on Thursday when she noticed he had been locked in a section away from where he is usually fed, the sanctuary said in a press release. As Couser went to raise the second door of a guillotine tunnel, she noticed it was clipped shut and reached in the enclosure to unclip it when Kimba "grabbed her arm and nearly tore it off at the shoulder,"
Reply 1 - Posted by:
planetgeo 12/4/2020 8:48:06 AM (No. 622905)
Well, I knew he was missing his putts and hadn't won a tournament in a long, long time, but this is sad to see him bite someone's arm off...
21 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Rumblehog 12/4/2020 8:52:33 AM (No. 622910)
Tiger doing what tigers do. People doing stoopid things, like owning a tiger.
29 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Venturer 12/4/2020 8:54:56 AM (No. 622916)
Familiarity breeds contempt.
6 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Mizz Fixxit 12/4/2020 9:02:21 AM (No. 622924)
FTA: The tiger "was just acting normal due to the presence of food and the opportunity," the sanctuary said.
Never give opportunity to a big cat.
11 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
BarryNo 12/4/2020 9:06:29 AM (No. 622931)
Any of the large predatory animals, while intelligent in a focused way, are too powerful and too unpredictable for a human to safely handle. You should not get in reach. If they are grumpy, they lash out, and what would be a irritable slap from another human can take your head off. If they are angry or hungry, they don't think they react and often lock up in a panic as they realize they've injured their handler - at least those who are on good terms with their human trainers. If not, the irritable response transitions into a devastating attack.
I always find my self cringing lightly at the people who video themselves physically interacting with various predators, such as lions, bears, and hyenas because they THINK they know what the animal will do. While confidence is a great defense, and plays a significant role in such things, your camera crew or an audience can set off predatory or defensive reactions in the animals. That's what happened to Siegfried and Roy. An audience member somehow set off their tiger.
From what I saw, Roy saw the tiger starting to tense up and focus on an audience member. He stepped in to distract the animal, which turned, grabbed him and tried to drag him away from what it perceived as a threat, accidentally puncturing an artery and critically injuring Roy. The tiger wasn't angry or acting aggressively, it was just too damn strong for a human to physically handle. And I think it was the right thing that the team refused to euthanize the tiger.
But people who go up to wild animals for hugs and kisses, and I've seen them do it with tigers, bears, polar bears, lions, hyenas, crocodilians, and even great white sharks, are simply lining up for Darwin Awards.
27 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
zephyrgirl 12/4/2020 9:08:00 AM (No. 622933)
I used to volunteer at a large carnivore sanctuary. They're beautiful animals but they scared me to death. They can act cute and cuddly, but they're big and fast and can turn on a dime and get vicious in a hurry. You don't realize how big they are until you're up close to one. Watching them crunch through a whole chicken in a couple of bites was an education.
14 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
hurricanegirl 12/4/2020 9:17:31 AM (No. 622957)
Oh, for goodness sake! Everyone knows that tigers are just cute, fluffy, extra-large harmless kitties--and buffaloes, alligators, moose, and polar bears are also perfecly safe, too. They just want to be petted.
(Have we had our monthly report yet of some idiot being attacked at a national park because he or she wanted to "get a selfie" with a wild animal?)
13 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
RuckusTom 12/4/2020 9:19:22 AM (No. 622963)
Heeeere kitty, kitty. Heeeere kitty, kitty. Awww. Nice kitty. Pretty kitty. Sweat little kitty.
Kitty! KITTY!!! BAD KITTY !!! BAD KITTY !!!
5 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
joew9 12/4/2020 9:21:42 AM (No. 622966)
The thing that disturbs me is the animus against Joe Exotic's type of facility which creates many cats when everyone is concerned about these cats going extinct. Put some of these kittens back in the wild. Repopulate.
3 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
JackBurton 12/4/2020 9:23:16 AM (No. 622971)
I've toured this sanctuary and highly recommend it to any who can visit. Rescuing abused animals, in this case, the dangerous ones is a noble effort. But it can be dangerous.
6 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
philsner 12/4/2020 9:32:02 AM (No. 622981)
Cats are predators. Better not to let them demonstrate.
2 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
Lawsy0 12/4/2020 9:50:39 AM (No. 623006)
You are cracking me up, #1! I was about to ask how far off did the arm actually get chewed.
1 person likes this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
zephyrgirl 12/4/2020 10:48:48 AM (No. 623078)
#9 - the problem is that most of these animals cannot be released into the wild. For one thing, they're acclimated to humans and associate humans with being fed. That makes them very dangerous. For another, they're mostly "mutts" of the carnivore world - mixed breeds that would foul the gene pool of animals living in the wild.
5 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
DVC 12/4/2020 12:04:09 PM (No. 623141)
Handling and hanging around large carnivores is seriously dangerous stuff.
They eat meat.
You are made out of meat.
Gee, how could that work out to your detriment? Some people really do have very limited imaginations.
5 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
DVC 12/4/2020 12:35:37 PM (No. 623202)
#9.
"Release the kittens into the wild". Not workable.
1. Cats are taught hunting by their mother, it takes a year or two in the wild. Can't 'release kittens', they'd starve.
2. Do YOU want a wild tiger released into your neighborhood? If you lived in the countryside, would you want one released anywhere where you or your kids or pets/livestock might be? The folks in India don't much like tigers roaming free....they eat people with some regularity.
We visited the Bandhavgarh tiger reserve in India a few years ago, and you are required to hire a driver with jeep and a naturalist/guide. OK, they drove us around the very large nature preserve to look for tigers. We saw a female with 2 year old "cubs" on the first afternoon. On the second morning, we had the same driver and naturalist, and started to head for the area where we saw the family of three tigers the previous day.....there was a log across the access road, and they turned around, and mumbled something about "Oh, yes, that part of the park is closed today" and wouldn't talk about it. Several days later we found out that a local woman had illegally entered the park to gather wood for cooking (deforestation outside the parks for cooking wood is a huge issue) and had been killed and eaten partially by the tigress and her two cubs that we had seen the previous day. People who live around large carnivores don't really want more of them eating them, their kids and livestock. Indian villigers kill tigers. As much as tigers are magnificent, beautiful, and wonderful.....do you want one living near you in the wild? I know I do not.
We are having some of this problem on Florida and other southern states as the gators make a huge comeback and now there are a LOT of them old enough and large enough to successfully attack humans. Do you want a 12 ft gator or a tiger in your neighborhood? Gators are pretty benign compared to tigers, too. Even grizzlies are a real problem near people, bringing back wolves has been problematic in western states, black bears less so, because they aren't usually aggressive, but - they are a risk.
Our ancestors wiped out large carnivores around their living areas for good reasons.
8 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
red1066 12/4/2020 2:48:22 PM (No. 623351)
Look at the video of this. The stupid woman is feeding the tiger by hand. She's actually holding food in her hand and holding it in front of the tiger. This is something like the woman who had a pet monkey, and the monkey ripped her face off I think while feeding it. These are wild animals. Darwin award winner.
3 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
Heraclitus 12/4/2020 3:04:19 PM (No. 623368)
It sounds like the tiger was in a smaller area of his normal space, he was waiting for dinner, and as the woman said, "she wasn't thinking." This is a scenario for disaster.
Next time, send in Biden. He knows how to grab a tiger by the tail and just get a sprained ankle.
3 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
PostAway 12/4/2020 4:41:45 PM (No. 623441)
Reading this reminded me that I uncaged my pet mamba so he could roam the house this morning for some much-needed exercise. If I don’t find him by bedtime I’ll try sleeping with a mouse in my bed and hopefully he’ll show up. He’s really tame and super cute! He loves me and would never hurt anyone!
6 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
DVC 12/4/2020 5:12:24 PM (No. 623473)
Interesting that you mention a mamba, #18.
When hunting in South Africa, the guide found a snake track in the sand, and took a rifle to follow it to try to kill it, saying it was a black mamba.
I offered my help, and he resisted, telling me that 'this is a really dangerous snake, they will attack you at high speed, be really careful. I'd rather you didn't help."
I helped anyway, being a confident pistol shot, and having a revolver handy.
The track went into a termite mound, ending the hunt.
Enjoy your pet mamba. Fictional, I hope.
3 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
NYbob 12/4/2020 5:39:52 PM (No. 623490)
In our new ego age many people are living in some kind of fantasy fog. Everything in the world should be the way they want it and they want complete access to all things exciting and dangerous, without any penalty for screwing up. Too much media conditioning and education. You swim with Great Whites for hours on TV, same with bears, tigers, etc. Even snakes can be 'petted' because some person did it on TV. THAT looks exciting and the person wasn't bitten so I, the viewer, could probably do it as well. So we have the continual parade of fools taking selfies with wild animals or on the edge of cliffs, etc.
I grew up with docile, big, animals. The average Holstein cow is as gentle a creature as you can imagine, but they are big and can really hurt you, even if they aren't trying. You learn that early on, if you aren't a half-wit. I was reminded of simple reality recently when I put my hand on a horses shoulder we were using for a photo reference shoot. It was like petting a fur covered slab of wood. Of course, I realized, he is a horse, he is huge, he is going to have a massive muscle structure that is off scale compared to a human. That was a prey animal who was only interested in who was going to give him a treat and when would that be. You can train a horse, domestic a horse, but you have to respect it. All you can do with a wild animal that resists domestication is respect it. Their speed, strength and ferocity are far greater than anything you can bring to the situation. Learn your place in the food chain and find out a few things about dogs while you are at it.
4 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
PostAway 12/5/2020 8:16:57 AM (No. 623798)
#19, wow! Excellent pistol shot or not, that was bold and game of you. Those things are fast and aggressive as all get out and hit like you were the one shot with the pistol. My mamba is fictional. I prefer living with pets that are less dangerous than Ted Bundy.
0 people like this.
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