One woman was seriously injured and another was killed when they exited their vehicle in a Chinese drive-through animal park and were attacked by a tiger.
According to the
New York Times, the incident occurred on Saturday, July 23 at Baldaling Wildlife World, a drive-through animal park in Yanqing County, north of Beijing. A woman, who was
reportedly arguing with her husband, exited her car in an area of the park inhabited by Siberian tigers. Seconds after exiting the car, a tiger jumped her and attempted to drag her away. The woman’s husband and mother then leaped from the car to help her. The woman who first left the car suffered serious injuries in the attack, but her mother was killed when she came to help. The husband, and the couple’s child who remained in the car, were uninjured.
Balading Wildlife World, which is located near the Great Wall of China north of central Beijing, has a reputation as an unsafe park. Back in
March, the park’s managing director was killed by an elephant while standing in for the park’s official elephant keeper. A park security guard was
killed by a tiger in 2014 when he stepped out of his patrol vehicle. In
2009, a man was killed by a tiger when he entered the tiger enclosure with some friends, apparently in an attempt to find a shortcut through the park.
There are only about two dozen Siberian tigers left in the wild, primarily along China’s border with Russia. Many, many more are bred and raised in wildlife parks around the country. Critics say that these breeding programs do little to help the animals, and
may actually serve as cover for the illegal trade in animal parts such as pelts and tiger bone wine.
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