Polar Bear Attacks Woman at Berlin Zoo

An animal attacks a zoo patron… at the Berlin Zoo.  I always assumed Germans were smart people, not the sort to jump a fence during feeding time.  Somehow this woman decided that she would get into the walled off polar bear habitat– it turned out about as well as you would think.  The bears attacked her.

The woman was taken to a hospital for treatment.  Police did not say why she jumped in with the bears.  “The woman has proved herself to be careless by jumping into the enclosure,” a police spokesperson said.  “Logic tells us that polar bears will do this type of thing in this situation.”

At least she seems to have survived despite her idiotic actions, unlike 17 year old Carlos Sousa who was killed by a tiger at the San Francisco Zoo on Christmas Day 2007.  It seems that Carlos and his two friends were lit up on vodka and marijuana during their visit to the zoo.  They taunted and teased a 253 pound Siberian Tiger named Tatiana.

The tiger then leaped out of its 12.5 ft tiger grotto enclosure and proceeded to “behave like a wild animal”. The 9-1-1 call went out a 5:07pm.  13 minutes after the initial 9-1-1 call, police officers and fire department paramedics reached Carlos Sousa’s body and found his throat slashed or punctured.  His autopsy later revealed that he had blunt force injuries of the head and neck, many punctures and scratches to his head, neck and chest, skull and spinal fractures, and a cut to his jugular vein. Carlos’ two friends were lucky like the woman in Berlin they only received deep bites and claw wounds on their heads, necks, arms, and hands.

Treat this as a public service announcement: Just because its a zoo and the animals are well fed, do not assume that the animals want to be there.  They are still wild animals.  Chris Rock said it best when he talked about Siegfried & Roy’s tiger attack: “That tiger didn’t go crazy; that tiger went tiger!”