This in the Boston Metro News this morning. What makes me angry is that they didn't kill the tiger to get him off the man (that I would understand); rather, they killed him afterwards execution style as if he had conginant reasoning ability. He's a wild animal. He was doing what wild animals do. That is the risk we take when we force these creatures into an unnatural life style.  

We take wild animals out of their natural habitat and put them on exhibition and expect them to behave like domesticated creatures. This animal had no concept that what he was doing was wrong.

‘Extinct’ tiger kills handler, gets killed

A rare white tiger has been put to death after attacking and killing a respected zookeeper in a wildlife park in New Zealand, Reuters reports.

Dalu Mncube, an experienced big cat handler known affectionately as Uncle Dalu, was mauled yesterday as horrified tourists watched on helplessly. Mncube had been Zion Lion Park’s senior cat handler after taking over for Craig Busch, star of the “Lion Man” TV show, which was based out of the refuge.

The tiger, a male known as Abu, was one of only 120 of the species left in the world, and was shot dead by park staff shortly following his attack. The species has been extinct in the wild for more than 50 years.

Back in February, Mncube saved a colleague from the very tiger that took his life. “I never got scared,” he said at the time, according to TVNZ. “If I got scared and panicked we could have had two casualties.”

Exactly Jason! Do you remember what happened to Roy of Siegfried & Roy fame a few years back? Before he went unconscious he told Siegfried not to let them hurt the tiger. And by god, Siegfried kept that tiger safe and he (the tiger) is still alive and loved by both Siegried and Roy today.

Later in an interview Roy said that in no way was that animal responsible for what happened, he was just a wild animal reacting the way wild animals sometimes do and that it was up to him (Roy) as the handler to recognize the subtle signals that told him something was wrong.

I admire that so much. He genuinely loves his animals and understands well the risks he is taking when he is on that stage with them.