Toddler mauled to death at Pittsburgh Zoo

I feel horrible for everyone involved in this story. I can't imagine going on after knowing I caused the death of my child - I can't imagine going on after bearing witness to a death like this child received. There are things in this world that can't be unseen and unheard.

Stories like this scar my soul and I'm glad they are so infrequent. No one deserves to die this way.

I guess the zoo is now closed indefinitely, any leads on why happens to the dogs?

An article I read said back in May they escaped their enclosure and the visitors were made to hide in a building until the keepers could catch and return all 8 dogs to the enclosure?

(This is not in reference to the zoo having any fault in the child's death, I'm just curious what happens now to the dogs.)

Yikes really? Scary.

I haven't heard anything about what they plan to do. all I heard last night on the news was they were still trying to reach a decision on what to do with them but if they've escaped before I can't imagine the outlook is good

Also said they will reopen on tuesday and that coroner found that the child did not die from the fall :/

That's horrifying. That poor little boy. I'm glad they're not euthanizing the dogs - it would be blatantly unfair (and yet very normal for this country) to punish them for doing what came naturally.

I read a little bit about how these African Painted dogs hunt and kill and I can understand now why they wouldn't try to resuscitate him.

In most cases of zoo animal deaths if the animal isn't killed on scene to protect the victim, they do not usually euthanize them afterwards. Recently a couple of people (adults, who WILLINGLY climbed into enclosures) have been killed by zoo animals and none of them have been put down, thankfully.

Yes it's definitely not the animals' fault.

It does make you wonder though why we keep doing that to wild animals (except endangered species I guess).

That poor baby boy RIP

This.

I'm hoping that they will relocate the animals to another zoo.

I can see people calling for blood on this one, and I worry that if they are kept where they are people might try and take matters into their own hands. How easy would it be to throw poisoned meat into their enclosure if someone wanted too?

They're pretty endangered, but for some reason aren't listed under Cites I (unless that changed recently). It would probably be best for everyone if they were moved to another facility though. While people are generally pretty mature, it would be hard and in poor taste to keep that exhibit open in the community where such a horrible tragedy occurred.

The animals would be safer from retribution that way too.

I think moving them is a good idea. But I'd still be paranoid someone would try something at the new place.

Do people really blame the dogs? I just can't understand the thinking that someone would try and hurt them? Its not like they got loose (this time) and attacked.

Yes, people are saying "if a dog on the street bites a kid it gets PTS, why aren't these dogs?"

OMG! People are stupid. First this mother, now the rest of the population? WFT? How can they compare a domestic dog to a wild dog? OMGOMGOMG!!! God help us all that we live in a world with this many stupid freakin' morons!:wall::madgo:

wow

Yeah, people really are clueless

My reaction when I heard this was "are you effing serious right now??" Then depressing defeat. Le sigh.

I saw a couple where they thought they should have been shot then and there regardless of the fact that all but one stopped when they were called.

To clarify, it's my understanding that they got loose into some kind of backup holding enclosure, they weren't roaming loose in the zoo or anywhere that the general public had access to.

They're not even in the same genus as wolves, so technically they're not even "dogs". They're more closely related to wolves than foxes are, but still, just no. They can't even hybridize. They're just a wild canine like a fox or hyena. Saying they should be shot for this is like saying a bear that mauls a tourist for climbing into the enclosure should be shot.

It would do a lot of good for the species as a whole if people stopped calling them "dogs". It's led to a lot of misconceptions that have led to their extermination in the wild, including the misconception that they aren't native, and that they're just descended from feral domestic dogs when they are not.