Zoo Vet Mistakes Employee In Gorilla Suit For An Actual Ape, Shoots Him With Tranquilizer
https://www.thedodo.com/zoo-vet-mistakes-employee-in-g-578204140.html
A veterinarian at Loro Parque, a zoo and marine park in Tenerife Spain with a disturbing history of animal welfare violations, shot a fellow park employee with a tranquilizer after mistaking him for gorilla. The park employee was actually dressed up in a gorilla costume and participating in a practice drill to simulate the escape of a captive gorilla from one of the enclosures.
The employee was running around the park mimicking an escaped gorilla when the veterinarian spied him and, apparently uninformed about the drill, shot him in the leg with a tranquilizer dose meant to take down a 400-pound gorilla. The employee had an allergic reaction to the dose and was taken to University Hospital of the Canary Islands, where he is in serious condition.
A translation of a report on the incident reads:
Drills like this are standard procedure at many zoos (at some U.S. zoos that are certified by the Association of Zoos and Aquaria, all the employees carry out various drills for animal escapes or disaster situations several times each year) -- though never has the escaped animal actually been shot.
The bizarre story -- almost too strange to believe -- is yet another testament to the lack of safety precautions at parks like this.
Even worse, this isnt the first time that Loro Parque has been the site of a horrific accident involving a park employee. On Christmas Eve of 2009, an orca whale named Keto (who was born at SeaWorld Orlando) attacked and killed a trainer, 29-year old Alex Martinez, during a training session. The event became a rallying call for many opponents of orca captivity, who say that the practice is dangerous both for people and for animals.
