Tiger Attacks, Kills Teen Posing For Senior Pictures

[Conservativesux]

Tiger Attacks, Kills Teen Posing For Senior Pictures

August 18, 2005

MOUND VALLEY, Kan. -- A Bengal tiger attacked and killed a teenage girl Thursday at a southeast Kansas animal sanctuary.

Haley Hilderbrand, 17, of Altamont, Kan., was posing with the tiger for her senior high school pictures at the Lost Creek Animal Sanctuary.

A news release from the Labette County Sheriff's Office said the big cat was being restrained by its handler, but it attacked the teenager, anyway.

More at:
http://www.wral.com/news/4869665/detail.html

[Brundle_Fly]

1. and getting photos with tigers

was considered safe before the attack?

[Conservativesux]

13. Sure. Just like swimming in shark infested waters is safe....NOT!

[saigon68]

15. When you FUCK with the Bull sometimes you get the HORNS

[Javaman]

52. Tiger...teeth....

[driver8]

24. Uhm...who is the rocket scientist that set this photo shoot up??

Unbelievable...how terrible.

[krkaufman]

41. The IRONY of this having happened in Kansas is obvious...

... the home of the fight against Charles Darwin and his insidious THEORY of Evolution. I wonder if her school opted-out on the teaching of evolution and natural selection.

What a horrible way to go.

[leftchick]

47. I want to know what kind of a parent

would allow their child near a wild animal.

[JackDragna]

2. People must stop exploiting exotics.

Tigers, in particular, can become ill-tempered very quickly, even if raised domestically from the moment they're born. I wonder how many people will have to die or get their arms ripped off before we stop abusing these animals.

[Booster]

4. I was holding my pussy cat the other day and something scared

him - I was a bloody mess when all the fur settled, bleeding with 2 scratches about 9 inches long on my arm. I have pet a lion before at Tippy Hedren's Shambala compound, and afterward though "what a really stupid thing to do".

[Conservativesux]

10. All cats on earth are basically the same in thier quest to hunt, track

and kill prey.

I have seen plenty feral housecats, that are let loose in the farmlands by ignorant people, hunt game _exactly_ like you see Tigers and Lions do on the discovery channel and other records.

[NYC]

16. It's the same thing.

It doesn't mean the tiger is any more vicious than your cat. It's just a lot bigger. People should know better.

I have a few cat scars. Couldn't be helped. I'll bet every cat owner has them.

[Gemini Cat]

29. I have a lot of cat scars.

My cats kick my ass every day.

[NYC]

33. And they're sweet little things.

Sweet, gentle, loving, but occasionally injurious.

[Mokito]

38. Oh Yes

If a cat doesn't want a tummy rub, you WILL know!

[The Stranger]

62. And how many tigers will be destroyed because of humans' ignorance

and inability to understand and respect the nature of the tiger.

[reprobate]

68. How many humans wil die cause * doesn't understand the nature of nature.

[kestrel91316]

3. A tiger is not a pet kitty. Ever.

[Conservativesux]

5. Even the experts like Siegfriend & Roy have paid the price for fooling

around with the worlds' most supreme land-based predators, the large cats. Might as well dive into a pool of sharks while you are at it, IMO.

Still, this is a tragedy that didnt need to happen.

What the hell are people thinking about these days ?????

[Conservativesux]

14. Nope, but some people have to learn the hard way.

[Stuckinthebush]

6. Fucking fools!

Why would anyone allow children to pose with a freaking tiger?

Whoever was in charge of this needs to be sued and jailed. Fucking idiots!

I can't tell you how angry this kind of crap makes me.

Damn fools.

[expatriot]

26. It looks like the owners of this facility are PLENTY guilty....

www.animalentertainment.net

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. May I ask

why she wanted her senior pic with a tiger? Am I missing something here?

[Horse with no Name]

9. I'd almost bet it was their school mascot

It is ours.
But hard to say.:shrug:

[proud2BlibKansan]

27. Thanks

That makes sense.

[Raster]

8. Sad. Chris Rock does a routine where he talks about Seigfried and Roy's

tigers and the attack. He said something to the effect that after the attack everyone said the tiger went crazy. The tiger didn't go crazy, the tiger went tiger.

[freeplessinseattle]

11. the tiger went tiger, I like that, so true. good one n/t

[kestrel91316]

12. I work with cats every day (the under 20 lb kind) and trust me ...........

they have a tremendous ability to explode and cause serious injury to even a trained professional such as myself.

I can't begin to fathom the power of an adult tiger and what trauma it could cause. The poor girl didn't have a prayer.

I always thought Siegfried and Roy suffered from a bad case of Bambi Syndrome, the anthropomorphization of those tigers (oh, the poor dears, they are just sweet little children in big furry bodies..........).

[Raster]

18. Bambi Syndrome. Gotta love it. They're 1,000 lb. carnivores...

...with an attitude. I had a friend that had a 25 lb. Siameese tom cat. Yes, big kitty. His name was Samauri, and boy, could he do some damage. When he started singing and laying his ears back and twitching his tail, you knew to get the hell out of the way. No, big cats belong in a jungle or other suitable, natural setting.

[OneBlueSky]

17. well, there's a 2005 Darwin Award winner for you . . . n/t

.

[nosmokes]

19. what kind of *sanctuary* allows people to pose with a

tiger fcol?!?! sheesh.

[expatriot]

21. My thoughts exactly... but maybe a "sanctuary " like this one....

Amarillo Wildlife Refuge...

http://www.peta.org/feat/awr/default.asp

[opihimoimoi]

20. Oh well, no more job for the Handler and the tiger....who will go to court

for 2nd degree manslaughter.

Loser is the poor girl....sad, but so avoidable....

[expatriot]

25. the article says that the tiger was killed.

The owners of this facility should face murder one and as many charges of animal cruelty as they have big cats penned up being "rehabilitated" to pose with girls for pictures and star in movies.

[The Stranger]

65. This extremely rare Bengal Tiger was destroyed simply for being what it is

yet if someone were run over by a car, would we destroy the car?

[tedzbear]

22. Meow

purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...

[expatriot]

23. If you check out the link to the sanctuary in the story, this is hardly

an animal "sanctuary."


This is from their website:

Animal Entertainment Productions, a branch of Lost Creek Animal Sanctuary, is dedicated to training animals for stage performances, movie, television, print and magic shows.

Note the url of their website is www.animalentertainment.net How could they even get away with being called a sanctuary? This pisses me off. One poor girl who was just trying to get a cool photo taken killed by a creature just trying to realize an instinctual part of him. Stupid, stupid people.

[Conservativesux]

31. Lost Up The Creek Without A Paddle Sanctuary is more like it now....

Cripes, after what happened to Roy, you would think people would wise up about how dangerous these big cats are.

No excuses now for these people letting anyone near these so-called "tame" animals!

[leftchick]

46. CNN called it a "sanctuary" too

and said it was a Siberian tiger. Great repoorting once again from the Cartoon News Network. :eyes:

It pisses me off too! :grr:

[Lorien]

28. I wonder if they asked her about her cycle first?

I've spent quite a bit of time around big cats, and a woman should NEVER get close to one of those animals during "that time of the month". Same effect as baiting sharks.

I feel awful for all involved, but the handler should have known better.

[Withywindle]

30. That's a really interesting point...

...something a male animal handler, etc. might not even think about, but it IS something to think about. I remember going on a pretty advanced, remote canoe trip up in Algonquin Park in Canada once, and the group leader who gave us orientation told us that if any of us were menstruating, be sure to bury any tampons or pads, etc. FAR away from the campsite because they can attract grizzly bears.


In any case, it's such a tragedy and so stupid, it didn't need to happen. And no, it's not the tiger's fault.

[tenshi816]

34. That's right, and it's good advice.

Some years back my husband and I backpacked through India for several weeks, including doing a trek in Kashmir (before the Home Office in the UK started recommending that tourists not go there anymore). We decided to forego using sherpas or going with a group, so it was just the two of us, alone in the mountains in the northernmost section of India.

On the final day of our little trekking adventure, we had walked nearly 20 miles back down from viewing a glacier and were fairly near the village where we planned to stay the night.

My period had started earlier that day, and I thought about the same thing you mentioned in your post because I was given the same advice once while camping in northern California. I knew there were bears in the woods in Kashmir because the vistors' centre in Srinigar contained an immense stuffed specimen, so I kept my eyes and ears open for anything unusual.

The trail we were on ran more or less parallel to and about 50 yards above a wide, fast-flowing stream about 2 feet deep. Towards the end of the day I became aware of a kind of droning type noise that I could hear even over the sound of the water, not quite a growl and not an angry sound, but a relentless one nevertheless. I glanced down the hill towards the stream and, sure enough, there was a large black bear slowly making its way up the hill towards us.

I know you're not supposed to run from bears - I've been told that so many times - but, honestly, when I saw that bear headed our way, my legs took on a life of their own and I took off down the path, with my husband beside me. Even carrying a heavy backpack, I felt like I was breaking a world sprint record. It was pointless to run, because if the bear had really been interested in us, it could've outrun us easily, but somewhere in the back of my brain I guess I figured that running would give me something to do in the 10 seconds or so before the bear ate me.

After tearing down the path for about a minute, we slowed down to a walk and looked around - no bear. It obviously wasn't coming after us because we were no threat to it, and what we finally decided was that it had caught my scent and was coming to investigate, but in the end found it not worth the effort to pursue us!

[tenshi816]

35. Self-delete

Duplicate post, sorry.

[LisaL]

63. Cycle or no cycle. It's obvious this shouldn't be done at all.

However was in charge of this "photo up" should be charged with this girl's death.

[woodsprite]

69. My daughter, our babysitter, and plenty of our relatives

thought I was nuts because I thought the same thing. My daughter wanted to use a tampon and still go out boogie boarding with dad 200 yards off shore when we were at the beach this year. I would not let her even consider it. I told her it's not like it's something that you say "Man, guess I shouldn't have done that". Of course, helicopter tours of the area showed hammerhead sharks not too far away from shore. A shark can smell 1 drop of blood in the water for a mile away.

Heck, domesticated dogs and cats act differently. I'm sure other species would.

[expatriot]

32. Of course these people are very, very stupid but I just had a terrible

thought. I wonder if her parents were there and had to watch the whole thing. And the "handler." I bet that was an awkward moment for him to say the least.

[Conservativesux]

43. It'll be a lot more awkward sitting in the defendants chair for being an

stupid idiot, allowing children to pose with a huge biological killing machine, i.e a Bengal Tiger.

Oh, and yes I do love cats.

I have two myself. Touch them when they are moody or at that time of the season and you get the claw marks.

Unbelieveable!

[O.M.B.inOhio]

36. What's the Matter with Kansas, indeed!

Maybe they'll start believing in natural selection out there.

How about, "Mr. President, let's take a photo next to the tiger. The folks at Chevron'll love it."

Are we so BORED that we need to take senior pix with a wild animal? How about taking it in front of the house your class built with Habitat for Humanity?

Kneejerk sarcasm out of system. It's a pity that more needless sorrow was foolishly added to the world.

[O.M.B.inOhio]

37. dupe. oops.

[Maine-ah]

39. my own cats attacked, I mean litterally attacked my mother

they were staying at her house while I moved, and they had recently had a litter of kittens. I had no choice but to leave mum, dad, and three kittens in my old bedroom. She also at the time had several cats of her own, so that is why mine had to be isolated.

Anyway, she went in to check on them for the night, and mumma cat jumped on my moms legs leaving 12" cuts down the back of her legs, some she should have gotten stiches for. Damn good thing my brother was home, and he went in when he heard her screaming and got her out of there.

Point being, this kind of shit is instinct. They were protecting their babies in a strange enviornment. And for years after that, everytime my mom would come over I would have to hide my cats away because they would growl and hiss at her. They finally got over it, but it took my mother quite a bit longer. It was only in the last year of my mumma cat's life that my mom was able to pet her or even be near her. My boy, Zero, who is still with us, loves her now, and she has no problems with him.

People should just know fucking better than to screw around with the large cats. Yeah, they're cute, but instinct kicks in, and if you don't die, you are scarred for life. They belong in the wild, not as pets or in the circus.

[booksenkatz]

40. There's a whole lotta things they aren't teaching in KS these days

Cat lover here who refuses to read the entire article, because although I'm terribly sad for that girl, I don't want to read about how they were "forced" to kill that beautiful tiger.

My family and I love to watch the mother and baby tigers at the Amersfoort Zoo webcam every day... they're so amazing, and it isn't their fault that we humans pen them up for our pleasure.
:cry:

[Ian David]

42. Well, I know what they were thinking: Genesis 1:26-30

Gen 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

<snip>

God gave humans dominion over every other living thing on earth. This couldn't be true, of course, since millions of other species existed for millions of years before humans existed.

But this verse is used by fundamentalist Christians to justify their mistreatment of other species and disregard for the environment.

After all, they believe that God created the other species just for them, so they can do whatever they please with them.

More:
http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/gen/1_26.html

[Ian David]

44. I used to think that cats hated me, until someone explained the problem...

See, after more than 30+ years of bites and scratches, someone finally told me that when a cat "wags its tail" it does NOT mean it's happy.

Dogs wag their tail when they're happy.

Cats wag their tail when they're thinking about killing you.

And they'll keep purring, too-- right up until they sink all four sets of claws into your arm and bury their teeth in your flesh.

[Puglover]

54. Yep...

when you're petting a cat or rubbing it's stomach and they start wagging their tail they are telling you "Enough!"

[slay]

45. That verse pisses me off more than just about any other

We need to live in harmony with the planet, not dominate it. I'm of the opinion that the world needs more spiritual people and less religious people. Religious people are told what to believe, which is called brainwashing, then they pass those beliefs on to others. Spiritual people seem to do a better job thinking for themselves while trying to be at peace with the rest of the world. Unfortunately many christians are so absorbed in their beliefs that they never even consider that they are actually part of a cult. :(

[flvegan]

66. It's because their definition of "dominion" is wrong.

It's a custodianship, not a mastery. Of course, fundies embrace the latter opinion with a bear-hug like mentality.

[Ilsa]

48. People simply do not respect animals and their power.

We had an idiot keeping exotic cats near here and one of them killed his daughter. The state came and took the animals away before someone else's child (or an adult for that matter) got hurt or killed.

People wanted to respect the family in their grief, but still, the LTTEs kept coming in about how inappropriate it is to keep these animals in a cage in a backyard.

Apparently loving the animals doesn't include respecting them.

[MADem]

49. OK, what IS the matter with Kansas?????????

What a massively stupid thing for that student to do. Even stupider was the sanctuary idiot who permitted the photo shoot. Oi vey!

[leesa]

50. Darwin Award winner.

[Triana]

51. What an assinine idea...

...having your 'senior' photo taken with a tiger?

Stupid. She should have expected to be attacked. Tigers are WILD ANIMALS - they need humans to keep a respectful distance from them.

I suppose now the tiger gets killed for doing what wild animals naturally do and because the girl (and her parents) were stupid?

[onager]

53. Even birds will do this...

Shades of Alfred Hitchcock! :scared:

Anyone else ever taken the fascinating tour of the Tower Of London? And heard about the famous "Tower ravens" who have been hanging around there for about 900 years?

These are large, ill-tempered, sharp-beaked birdies who are VERY territorial.

When they're babies, one of the Tower wardens is appointed to feed and care for them. They won't attack him, because they view him as a sort of large, bipedal, non-feathery Mom. I guess.

But anyone else is fair game. And despite the constant warnings, the signs posted all over the place, etc., little kids will still try to go up and play with them.

I once heard a Tower warden bark at a little kid: "Try to pet that thing, sonny, and your friends will be calling you Cap'n Hook!"

(The Tower wardens are all retired Warrant Officers from the British military...by law...and tend to have a certain attitude. Sort of like their ravens.)

[SidDithers]

55. What I want to know is...

Why did the Flying Spaghetti Monster intelligently design tigers in Kansas to be so viscious?

Sid

[bleedingheart]

56. I know a woman that just had her picture taken with a tiger

she showed me the picture on Tuesday. All I could think was, "that looks really dangerous".....and sadly it appears it really is as dangerous as I thought it was.

[LisaL]

64. People are just dumb.

[northzax]

57. paging Dr. Darwin

Dr. Charles Darwin, please pick up the white courtesy phone.

kids do dumb things, even teenagers, this is why there are adulyts around, to stop them from doing stupid things and getting killed.

[Conservativesux]

61. Too bad the adults at Lost Creek didnt get the message. $$$ is king!

And this poor girl paid with her life.

[DemsUnite]

58. Could the parents be liable?

This is a minor put in a dangerous situation.

[Conservativesux]

60. Not likely a DA will charge them. The owners of Lost Creek are toast !

Its portrayed as "safe" so the parents assumed so, I suspect. Last thing they need is to be charged with a crime after the death of thier child.

How could they know it was so unsafe?

[flvegan]

67. Or at least their insurance company.

If they're insured to "educate" to "promote conservation" then I'll bet they've got insurance for public meet 'n greets.

[NNN0LHI]

59. WTF! Sharks ain't biting or something? n/t

[Moderator]

70. Local tragedy

Not suited for LBN. ( as are some of the comments)