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Child mauled to death at Pittsburgh Zoo

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purg3

slept with Malkin
Terribly tragic story

Officials of the Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium confirmed this afternoon that a little boy was mauled to death today after falling into the African painted dog exhibit.

The incident occurred at 11:48 a.m. at the Highland Park complex, according to emergency dispatch supervisor. The zoo was shut down within a half-hour of the incident and will remain closed indefinitely.

A Pittsburgh police officer shot and killed one of the 11 dogs in the exhibit.

Zoo President and Chief Executive Officer Barbara Baker said the child, who was about 3 years old, was on an outing with his mother when he fell over a railing and off of a mesh barrier where the painted dogs were on display.

A news release distributed by zoo officials said keepers were able to quickly clear seven of the 11 dogs from the exhibit. Though darts were shot into the exhibit in an effort to scare the dogs away from the child, the news release indicated that "unfortunately, the dogs were in pack mentality and not responding."

Keepers attempted to enter the yard but were unable to reach the child, the release said.

Pittsburgh police officers and keepers attempted to lure the dogs away but one "aggressive" dog was shot and killed by an officer. Ms. Baker commended the officer, noting the dog would not move away from the child.


She said the zoo initially declared a "code blue," meaning an accident involving a human had occurred. That was followed with a "code red," meaning that there was a serious human emergency in play.

The incident is under investigation by police and the zoo.

Ms. Baker said no decision has been made about the future of the exhibit.

The African painted dog exhibit debuted after the October 2009 birth of the pups. A surrogate mutt was drafted into service for the nine pups after their natural mother died of a ruptured uterus. In the spring of this year, nine of the 11 painted dogs escaped a section of their enclosure causing a brief shutdown of the zoo.

Ms. Baker said at that time on May 5 that the dogs got into a 1.5-acre "backup yard" not visible to the public, but the dogs were not out of their exhibit.

African painted dogs are an endangered species.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories...-pittsburgh-zoo-exhibit-660606/#ixzz2BHcPUs2J

I still don't understand how accidents like this can happen.



UPDATE:

Pittsburgh police Major Crimes Lt. Kevin Kraus said the boy's 34-year-old mother placed the child in a standing position on a wooden railing overlooking the enclosure.

"Almost immediately after that he lost his balance, fell down off the railing into the actual pit and he was immediately attacked by 11 dogs," Lt. Kraus said.


The incident occurred at 11:48 a.m. at the Highland Park complex, according to an emergency dispatch supervisor. The zoo was shut down within a half-hour of the incident and will remain closed indefinitely.

Zoo President and Chief Executive Officer Barbara Baker said at a news conference shortly after the incident that the child fell over the wooden railing and off of a mesh barrier where the painted dogs were on display. A zoo spokeswoman and police said the wooden railing is 4 feet in height and the lower mesh barrier is 11 feet 4 inches above the open exhibit space.
PG VIDEO

"The screams just kept coming and coming: 'Someone help. Someone has to do something,'" recounted Angela Cinti, 20, of Bethel Park, who was visiting the zoo today with her boyfriend Nick Kramer, 16, of Bethel Park.

Lt. Kraus said zoo personnel responded within minutes. The first personnel on scene were able to lure seven of the dogs away from the victim and into a secure and separated area. A second set of personnel began "throwing objects and some other techniques that they use" to secure three more dogs.

He said the final dog, which was acting very aggressively toward the victim and zoo personnel, was shot multiple times by two Pittsburgh police officers and died.

Lt. Kraus said none of the people who observed the child fall into the enclosure made an attempt to go after him. The news release from zoo officials noted that keepers attempted to enter the yard but were unable to reach the child.

One ineffective technique used by zoo personnel to lure the animals away from the child was to fire "dummy tranquilizer rounds," Lt. Kraus said.

Information released from the zoo indicated that "unfortunately, the dogs were in pack mentality and not responding."

The child was pronounced dead at the scene 12 p.m.

The incident is under investigation by police and the zoo. Lt. Kraus said it would be inappropriate to speculate on potential charges at this time and the bureau will continue to investigate to determine if anything could have been prevented.

Police said the boy and his mother are from Pleasant Hills and were visiting the zoo with relatives, an adult and another child, at the time of the incident.

Ms. Cinti described a horrifying scene that lasted a little more than 5 minutes but seemed like hours.

"We were on our way to the polar bear exhibit when we heard the most horrible piercing screams. ... Someone was begging for help, asking someone to do something," she said. The couple ran back in the direction they came from, passing the bear exhibits. The screams continued.

As they reached the painted dog exhibit, she saw a small crowd of distressed onlookers. "One woman with a baby in the stroller was screaming that someone needed to do something," Ms. Cinti said. She said she could see the little boy's apparently lifeless body lying on the hill inside the exhibit. "There were three dogs: one at his head, one on the left side of his neck and another one down by his leg. ... A [zoo employee] got there and hopped over a fence with a rake and he was banging ... trying to distract the dogs but they wouldn't move," she said.

Ms. Cinti, a student at Community College of Allegheny County, tracked the time frame with her cell phone, saying she made a call at 11:49 a.m. when she and her boyfriend first headed toward the commotion. She said her cell phone shows that the call was ended five minutes and five seconds later, when a half-dozen zoo employees arrived and dispersed the crowd.

Bart DePasquale, who was at the zoo today with his two children for a birthday party, was near the tiger exhibit when he heard screams coming from the direction of the African painted dogs exhibit.

"People were yelling 'Get away,' and 'Stay away,' and it wasn't just one person, it was an entire group of people," said Mr. DePasquale, 29, of Fox Chapel. "The screams sounded heavily distressed and the people were using profanity. They were shouting to zoo employees."

Mr. DePasquale and Ms. Cinti said they were told to go inside the nearest buildings where they were kept there for about a half hour.

"We were locked down in the building and told to stay inside. ... We thought it was a problem with one of the animals that got loose. Then we were told it was an incident with the wild dogs and that a child had been hurt."

When patrons were told the zoo was closed and they needed to leave, Mr. DePasquale said, "On the way out, I saw a mother who was distressed and crying and other people who couldn't even talk about it. ... People and anyone who had been close were almost in tears, were walking out glassy-eyed. That's when multiple people told me the dogs attacked a young child."

Ms. Baker said the zoo initially declared a "code blue," meaning an accident involving a human had occurred. That was followed with a "code red," meaning that there was a serious human emergency.

Ms. Baker said no decision has been made about the future of the exhibit.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories...-pittsburgh-zoo-exhibit-660606/#ixzz2BIt9HYIf
 
I had to look what a painted dog was:
250px-Lycaon_pictus_(Temminck,_1820).jpg
 

purg3

slept with Malkin
How does a 3 year old fall over a railing?

Exactly. I'm sure no one wants to place blame in a situation like this, but someone has to be at fault. Whether it was the parent or poorly implemented safety precautions. I'm curious as to what the parent was doing at the time, if they were holding the child and he fell or just not paying attention.
 

Trojita

Rapid Response Threadmaker
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/11/04/zoo-animals-kill-small-child/

He "fell off an observation deck that's about 14 feet above the exhibit," she said, "and was killed by the dogs."

"Our emergency teams and our Pittsburgh police responded immediately, but there wasn’t anything that could be done," she said.

"It is with heavy hearts we report that a tragic accident occurred this morning at 11:45 a.m," the zoo said in a statement.

The zoo and the associated PPG Aquarium are closed until further notice.

African painted dogs are among the most endangered dog species in the world, with less than 3,000 left in the wild, Baker said. The zoo has a breeding program.

Each is about the size of a small German shepherd, Baker said.

Horrible situation :(

I'd like to know more about what happened though.
 
that's awful, and now all i can think about is 'i have to see pictures of this fence the 3 year child fell over' because... man, how does this even happen??
 
Cause we like to kill exotic species.

Well is it crazy to think that if we are going to have zoos, otherwise known as places that house wild, dangerous animals and are frequented by small children, there shouldn't be things like railings? There should be no way for there to be any kind of contact between the animals and the visitors. Put all the exhibits behind some sort of glass or something.
 

whitehawk

Banned
So sad. Fences shouldn't be climbable (even though we're not sure how the child fell in) to prevent toddlers from doing this when their parents aren't looking.
 

Ether_Snake

安安安安安安安安安安安安安安安
Mom not watching her son, for starters.

It can happen really quickly. My guess is the child literally slipped himself through the railing, probably in less than 3 seconds. Can't always blame the parents.
 

Log4Girlz

Member
Damn. This is my favorite land mammal too. 90% hunting success rate. They let pups feed first. Males do a tremendous amount of work raising pups. In the past, before nearly going extinct they were known to live in packs as large as 100 individuals.
 

kswiston

Member
Well is it crazy to think that if we are going to have zoos, otherwise known as places that house wild, dangerous animals and are frequented by small children, there shouldn't be things like railings? There should be no way for there to be any kind of contact between the animals and the visitors. Put all the exhibits behind some sort of glass or something.

This happens so rarely that every incident of a person being killed at a zoo is international news. If the safety standards on this exhibit are lacking, the zoo will rightfully pay a lawsuit and make the necessary changes. However, sometimes accidents happen, even if safety precautions exist.

Over 400 kids are hit by cars each year in the US. Another 1500 are killed in car accidents as a passenger, and 200-300 are killed in stationary cars. Maybe we should get rid of those too?
 

diamount

Banned
Why we still got zoos?

Indeed.. with YT you can find any animal you want... no dangers, no animals trapped in very small spaces and no tragic deaths like this. I hope in the future zoos are banned as they serve no purpose with the invention of media sharing sites.
 
That's a pretty poor design. Doesn't seem like it would have been that hard to double gate the enclosure, or gate it to the top without the gap in between.

I had to take a course in exhibitry design, and I was shocked when I saw how poorly designed the observation deck was.

Indeed.. with YT you can find any animal you want... no dangers, no animals trapped in very small spaces and no tragic deaths like this. I hope in the future zoos are banned as they serve no purpose with the invention of media sharing sites.

Yes, because a youtube video is the same as seeing an animal in real life.
 

xbhaskarx

Member
"African painted dogs are among the most endangered dog species in the world"

Maybe one day killing endangered species will be worthy of news headlines...
 

alterno69

Banned
Indeed.. with YT you can find any animal you want... no dangers, no animals trapped in very small spaces and no tragic deaths like this. I hope in the future zoos are banned as they serve no purpose with the invention of media sharing sites.
So if you watch Jurassic Park enough times it's like the dinosaurs still exist right?
 

kswiston

Member
Indeed.. with YT you can find any animal you want... no dangers, no animals trapped in very small spaces and no tragic deaths like this. I hope in the future zoos are banned as they serve no purpose with the invention of media sharing sites.

Clearly it is better to let many of these species go extinct, since we already have enough videos of them on Youtube correct?

Zoos serve as a gene bank for species at severe risk of extinction. Several formerly extinct in the wild animals have been reintroduced into their historical natural habitats thanks to the effort of zoos. Other formally critically endangered species have recovered to stable population numbers due to Zoo breeding and conservation programs. Zoos educate the public on conservation matters, raising awareness and compassion. Also, seeing animals in person is a lot different than watching a video of them.

In a perfect world, there would be no need for zoos, but the reality of the situation is people in Africa, South America and South Asia are poor, and value short term monetary gains over the long term viability of their natural resources (which is understandable when you are struggling to eat). As such about a third of all mammals and birds will likely go extinct in the next 50 years without serious conservation efforts.
 

neorej

ERMYGERD!
It can happen really quickly. My guess is the child literally slipped himself through the railing, probably in less than 3 seconds. Can't always blame the parents.

If I walk up to an animal-exhibit and I do not 100% trust the fence / railing to protect my child from entering the exhibit, I will either have my eyes on my kid the entire time or hold her so I know where she is. Hell I was ready to dive in front of predatory birds at a birdshow I was attending with my 8m old girl, and I held her the entire time, making sure she didn't do anything that the keepers warned for before the show.
 

Shambles

Member
I don't see how a 3 year old could get through that. Either some idiot held them up at the top gap, or the structure failed and the mesh came off altogether.
 

ChiTownBuffalo

Either I made up lies about the Boston Bomber or I fell for someone else's crap. Either way, I have absolutely no credibility and you should never pay any attention to anything I say, no matter what the context. Perm me if I claim to be an insider
I don't see how a 3 year old could get through that. Either some idiot held them up at the top gap, or the structure failed and the mesh came off altogether.

I'm going to lean sadly, to human error.
 

shira

Member
I don't see how a 3 year old could get through that. Either some idiot held them up at the top gap, or the structure failed and the mesh came off altogether.

So you must be right because you were not there. Bad mother confirmed.
 
I don't see how a 3 year old could get through that. Either some idiot held them up at the top gap, or the structure failed and the mesh came off altogether.

I don't think that narrow mesh screen that was bolted into place above the railing was designed to support the weight of a 3 year old.
 

Ether_Snake

安安安安安安安安安安安安安安安
Indeed.. with YT you can find any animal you want... no dangers, no animals trapped in very small spaces and no tragic deaths like this. I hope in the future zoos are banned as they serve no purpose with the invention of media sharing sites.

Yeah I'm never traveling again either, pictures on National Geographic and seeing the food on the Food Channel is good enough.
 

kswiston

Member
Never said zoos are good, i was talking about his youtube=watching the real thing. There are many ways to see living animals other than zoos.

Actually your chances of seeing most of the tropical animals outside of a zoo are slim to none (unless you live there permanently). You can spend months working in a tropical rainforest and never see a Jaguar or an Ocelot. Most forest species are cryptic.
 
Fucked up story on all counts. I find it kind of ridiculous that you'd kill a wild animal for acting like a wild animal, but I guess the child was endangered at that point, and this wasn't after the entire ordeal or anything. So that kinda makes sense.
 
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