Cincinnati – Zoo Exhibit Breaches Rare But Can Have Deadly Outcomes

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    FILE - In this Nov. 5, 2012 file photo, reporters and photographers gather at an observation area during a press tour at the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium in Pittsburgh.(AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File)Cincinnati – A 3-year-old boy’s breach of a gorilla exhibit at the Cincinnati Zoo, leading authorities to fatally shoot the gorilla to protect the child, has focused attention on zoo enclosures and security.

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    Incidents of humans entering enclosures or animals escaping are rare, but can have tragic outcomes:

    August 1986: A 5-year-old boy lifted up to a wall by his father for a better view of some gorillas falls 20 feet into a pit at a British zoo on the English Channel island of Jersey. The gorillas crowd in to watch as their patriarch strokes the boy, who regains consciousness and cries out in fear, scaring away the gorillas. Rescuers then haul him up on a stretcher. He suffers a broken arm and head injuries.
    FILE - In this Friday, Aug. 16, 1996 file photo, Binti Jua, an 8-year-old female gorilla, carries an injured 3-year-old boy to a service gate after the child fell 18 feet to a concrete floor in the primate exhibit at the Brookfield Zoo in Brookfield, Ill. The boy climbed a 3-foot railing and fell in the primate exhibit at the zoo and is picked up by the motherly gorilla, who carries him in her arms to a gate where zookeepers could get him.  (AP Photo/WLS-TV, File)
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    May 1987: A young boy enters the polar bear cage at Brooklyn’s Prospect Park Zoo and is fatally mauled by two of the animals, which are then killed by police. Two other boys who had gone to the zoo told investigators that they went there to swim in the moat surrounding the bear cage.

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    April 1994: An 8-year-old boy wanders into an off-limits area at the zoo in Jackson, Mississippi. He is attacked when a cheetah scales a fence of a holding pen, nipping and scratching the child before taking off with his baseball cap. The boy suffers cuts and bruises. The cat is sedated by zookeepers within minutes.

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    August 1996: A 3-year-old boy climbs a 3-foot railing and falls 18 feet onto concrete in the primate exhibit at Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo. He is picked up by an 8-year-old gorilla, who carries him in her arms to a gate where zookeepers could get him. Keepers spray water at other gorillas in the exhibit to keep them away from the boy, who suffers only minor head injuries and scrapes.

    _FILE - This Nov. 5, 2012 file photo shows the overlook platform where 2-year-old Maddox Derkosh fell into the exhibit that was home to a pack of African painted dogs and was killed on Sunday, Nov. 4, 2012 at the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium in Pittsburgh. A 3-year-old boy’s breach of a gorilla exhibit at the Cincinnati Zoo, on Saturday, May 28, 2016, leading authorities to fatally shoot the gorilla to protect the child, has focused attention on zoo enclosures and security. Incidents of humans entering enclosures or animals escaping are rare, but can have tragic outcomes. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File)__

    September 2003: An adolescent, 300-pound male gorilla named Little Joe escapes his enclosure at Franklin Park Zoo in Boston for a second time, injures a young woman and 2-year-old child and roams around the zoo and city streets for nearly two hours before being sedated with tranquilizer darts and recaptured. The girl’s grandmother says the gorilla threw the child to the ground.

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    December 2007: A Siberian tiger escapes from its enclosure at the San Francisco Zoo, apparently by climbing or leaping from its enclosure. It then fatally mauls a 17-year-old boy, injures two of his friends, and is shot to death by police. Police say the attack was partly triggered by the victims provoking the animal.

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    November 2012: A 2-year-old boy lunges from his mother’s grasp and falls about 10 feet from atop a wooden railing into an African painted dogs exhibit at the Pittsburgh zoo. He bounces off a net meant to catch falling debris and trash, then into the exhibit. He is fatally mauled by the dogs. Some of the attacking dogs are called or drawn away, but police shoot one that’s especially aggressive.

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    October 2014: A 3-year-old boy goes over a railing, falls about 15 feet into a jaguar exhibit at the Little Rock Zoo in Arkansas and is bitten by two of the cats on the neck and foot. The child’s father throws objects at the jaguars, and employees use fire extinguishers to further deter them until a worker with a ladder pulls the boy to safety. He is critically hurt but survives.

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    April 2015: A 2-year-old boy falls about 10 feet into a cheetah exhibit at the Cleveland zoo after his mother dangles him over a railing. The cheetahs don’t approach, and his parents jump in and pull the boy to safety. He is treated for bruises.
    FILE - In this Dec. 26, 2007 file photo, a police officer examines a tiger enclosure at the San Francisco Zoo, following a Christmas Day tiger attack that left one person dead and two others injured in San Francisco. Tatiana, a Siberian tiger, escaped from the grotto and attacked three people before police shot and killed her. Incidents of humans entering enclosures or animals escaping are rare, but can have tragic outcomes. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)


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