Tiger Down

I'm really sad about the killing of Enshalla, a 14-year-old endangered Sumatran tiger born and raised at Lowry Park Zoo. One mistake by a new zookeeper and this tiger who, like anyone in captivity, saw a chance for freedom and took it, and like many before her, human and animal, she paid the ultimate price for taking that chance. There are only about 600 of her tiger subspecies left in this world of greed, overpopulation and destruction that we live in...and now there is one less of her subspecies. Yes, she would probably have died of old age in the next 4-5 years but it would have been a far less painful and explosive death.

Goodbye, Enshalla. I saw you once at the zoo and I stood there for a very long time watching you and your companion tiger wandering around your make-believe Sumatran island. Maybe it was you who swam in the moat on that hot summer day. Maybe it was you who is captured forever in a photo I took that day. Goodbye....