Tiger down
Yet again another animal pays the ultimate price for an unbelievably stupid decision made by a human. Eko, a critically endangered Malayan tiger living at the Naples Zoo at Caribbean Gardens, was shot and killed Wednesday evening by a sheriff's deputy because an after-hours cleaner, River Rosenquist, decided it was a great idea to jump a barrier and enter an unauthorized area to pet or feed 200+-pound Eko through the tiger's enclosure fencing. And Eko, like any wild-at-heart big cat in an enclosure, grabbed Rosenquist's arm and wouldn't let go. Maybe the tiger thought it was some kind of weird treat or maybe the wild came out and he went on the offensive to protect his territory.
Did Rosenquist think he was going to get to play with Fluffy, a little striped kitty cat? How can someone be 26 years old and not understand that the animals in a zoo are wild, even though they were born in captivity? Hell, I have to be careful around my own two adopted cats (who are not tigers but sometimes they think they are) because they have claws and teeth, and they aren't afraid to use them if they get scared or don't like something.
Eko and two other Malayan tigers were born 2013 at the Little Rock Zoo in Arkansas. Eko came to Naples in 2020; he was only eight years old when he died Wednesday.
I don't feel sorry for Rosenquist. I hope he faces criminal charges when he gets out of the hospital. My friend once said, "I knew there were stupid people in the world; I just didn't know there were so many of them." And, unfortunately for animals like Eko, stupid people are often the cause for the deaths of animals who are just being who they are.
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