A keeper of a zoo in China was mauled by brown bears before the terrified eyes of a group of tourists, who involuntarily witnessed the scene. It happened at the Shanghai Wild Animal Park on Saturday afternoon. The news surfaced on social media, with a video that records what happened but of which it is impossible to verify the authenticity. The clip, taken from a vehicle, lasts about 56 seconds: eight bears are seen, in a pond in the distance, all raging together on something without being able to understand exactly what it is.
The facility confirmed the death of one of the workers who was carrying out “his duties” in the park area where wild animals are left free to roam to be admired by tourists traveling on special buses. The Shanghai Wild Animal Park is a huge structure that houses more than 100 thousand animals belonging to more than 200 species: in one area visitors move on foot, in another, tourists enjoy the animals that roam undisturbed, sitting in board the buses.
Shanghai, keeper of a zoo torn apart by a group of brown bears in front of tourists
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The video quickly went viral and sparked debate over the existence of zoos. Some argue that bears acted like any wild animal. Many have proposed that the only solution to avoid such incidents is to “close the zoos and let the animals live free”. Others condemned the Shanghai Wild Animal Park’s lack of security measures and expressed condolences for the tourists who witnessed the incident. It is rare for zoo workers in China to be mauled to death by animals, but attacks are not entirely uncommon, although in most cases these incidents are presumably caused by the visitors themselves.
In 2017, a man was bitten by a bear in a wildlife park in China after he ignored park warnings and rolled down the window to feed the bear while a 28-year-old circus cleaner in Moscow in recent days. passionate about animals and aspiring tamer, he secretly took the keys of a cage to be able to come into contact with a bear, which one day he hoped to be able to tame, and was torn to pieces because he was wearing a mask and was not recognized.
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