I mean, do I really care of the tigers are stressed? A human life has been lost, and here we are, worrying for the poor “stressed” tigers. Is the 147th trying to turn us into emotionless drones?
From Straits Times 15th Nov 08
Tigers stressed by the incident
THE two white tigers involved in Thursday’s attack on a cleaner are exhibiting symptoms of stress.
Normally relaxed and languid, they are now on constant alert, zoo officials said yesterday.Their ears are pricked up, and they are breathing heavily.
Only Winnie and Jippie, the two female cats which carried out the attack, are showing these symptoms.
The other white tiger in the enclosure, Omar, a male, showed no interest in the cleaner, Mr Nordin Montong, 32, and stayed well away from him.
Omar is behaving normally.
The two other cats are stressed out because of the commotion that occurred during the attack, said the zoo’s assistant director Biswajit Guha.
Onlookers screamed and keepers flung objects at the animals to try to distract them on Thursday.
The cats’ heightened senses were thus thrown off-kilter, Mr Guha said, adding that they were probably traumatised because they had not experienced anything like it before.
It was also the first time they had come into close contact with a human being since they arrived in Singapore from Indonesia seven years ago, Mr Guha said, and their sense of smell was probably affected.
Even during feeding and cleaning, keepers stay well clear of the big cats.
When meal times roll around, a keeper lures the cats into a holding area behind the exhibit, places about 5kg of raw meat in the enclosure, then leaves it before letting the cats back in.
Mr Guha said: ‘The rule is that no one is allowed to enter an enclosure in the presence of a potentially dangerous animal.
‘All staff members know this.’
Over the next few days, zoo officials will try and calm the cats down by sticking to their usual routine.
This includes checks by keepers in the mornings to make sure the tigers’ bodily functions are working well, raw meat feeding sessions once daily and ‘enrichment classes’ three times a week.
These classes involve hurling a fibreglass ball full of raw meat into the enclosure to encourage the tigers to exercise and to stimulate their brain activity.
The white tiger exhibit is currently closed, and the animals have been restricted to the den area.
If all goes well, the cats will be let out again on Monday, and the exhibit will be reopened, said Mr Guha.
He added that the tigers were not overly aggressive, and had merely shown behaviour that comes naturally to big cats.
In fact, he said, the zoo’s tigers are conditioned to the presence of human beings and are likely to be less aggressive around them than their cousins in the wild.
He added: ‘It is only when they feel threatened, feel their territory is intruded upon, or view an object as potential prey that they attack. Usually, they would keep away.’
JESSICA LIM
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The tigers are endangered creatures and the stress is not good for them. Humans are trying to save endangered animals no? Besides, are we treating the animals as a subspecies here? That their life is of no consequence as compared to a human, hence we should not care about the tigers since they killed a human. Personally I feel that the tigers shouldn’t be blamed. The man wanted to commit suicide anyway. He chose the path he took.
You might not, but I’m sure plenty of other people do. Besides, these are Bengal White Tigers. Do you have any idea how rare they are?
Imagine the person who was attacked was someone close to you, your wife or your children. Would you care about the fact that they are rare tigers?
What I feel is, yes, rare animals should be valued, but a living human is still more valuable.
Why I think so is because of feelings. Would a Bengal White Tiger be saddened by its own extinction? Apparently not. Would the family and friends of a human being be saddened by the person’s death. An absolutely yes.
The thing is, the guy had chosen to end his own life regardless of whatever reason or distress he was in.
He could have thrown himself off a HDB building, jumped into the tracks of an incoming train, but no, he decided to jump into an animal’s conclave.
Cats are territorial creatures, much less the bigger ones. And when the guy jumped in, their instincts told them to protect their territory.
Would you fault a policeman for shooting a person who was waving a knife and running towards him? Then criticize him for shooting the person because he was doing what he had to?
Or do you sympathize that he had to shoot a person, and take pity on him when he’s acting differently?
So because humans have feelings they are ranked higher? Because I will feel for someone’s death so that someone is valued higher than another? Well I’m just saying the reason why the zoo is worried about stressed animals is because they have a job to preserve them. Besides, they are not saying they are nonchalant about the worker’s death. Personally I feel that if someone has chosen to end his own life (w/o mental illness), he deserves no pity from me. As such, wouldn’t I have more pity for the animals? If I make you kill me, do you expect people to actually pity me and condemn you instead? Same logic. He went in and attracted their attention. Kind of like asking for it.
What happened to the female white tigers? What is stressing them? I’m feel sorry to the cleaner. I hope the zoo can provide sufficient compensation to the cleaner’s family.
White tigers are extremely rare… They exist because of a rare genetic make up causing them to be white instead of the normal colour which is golden / orange colour.
Stress itself is not something trivial to which you can dismiss it totally. There are research to show that MERE stress alone can increases chances on HEART ATTACKS in humans, DEPRESSION in humans… Let alone tigers and animals who depend more on instincts rather than rational behaviour to cope with stress.
A human life has been lost, yes. Our condolences reach out the man’s family, but that does not give us any right to degrade the tigers in any way.
In your case, your attitude towards Life is that a human life weighs more than the life of an animal, and the dissonance you experience is that the people of the zoo care more about the welfare of the tigers than the man. Therefore, creating this blog post to reduce such dissonants by restating your point that people should learn to get their priorities right and that human welfare should come first..
I have no pity for the dumb fool who thinks its ok to kill himself by jumping into the tiger’s enclosure.. But what is strange is that according to the newspapers it seems that the cleaner was already showing signs of mental unbalance previous to the incident. Question is, why did the singapore zoo not remove him from his post? This level of incompetence is unforgivable as innocent animals are involved. Like i said eariler, i really don’t care that the cleaner died. I think he deserved it! What annoys me is that the poor tigers have to now suffer for the oversight.
I feel that the white bengal tigers should not be blamed. No doubt we are saddened by the cleaner’s death, but he chose the path himself. I think the zoo has done a lot in terms of compensation, factoring that he committed suicide. The tigers did what they distinctively do, they are predators for goodness sake.