One of the dogs, which are endangered, was fatally shot by police.īaker said she had been informed by the Allegheny County medical examiner that an autopsy determined the boy survived the plunge. Instead, the dogs were recalled into an indoor enclosure, though four of the 11 lingered near the boy even after blank anesthetic darts, used out of an abundance of caution for the boy's safety, were fired to shoo them away. Nearby staff responded "within seconds" on Sunday but quickly determined that the dog attack was fatal and didn't send handlers into the enclosure to intervene, Baker said. There was a safety net below the railing, but it failed to catch him, and the boy dropped more than 10 feet into the enclosure, she said. In September a man jumped off an elevated viewing train at the Bronx Zoo in New York and was severely mauled by tigers.The boy's mother had picked him up and put him on top of a railing at the edge of a viewing deck Sunday when he lost his balance and fell, said Barbara Baker, president of the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium. In 2007, a tiger jumped over a wall at the San Francisco zoo, killing one visitor and wounding two others. Past fatal attacks at zoos have prompted zoos around the nation to review safety features of their exhibits. The zoo was on lockdown for about an hour as a precaution. In May, some of the dogs crawled under a fence and escaped into a part of the exhibit that's usually closed. Feldman said the Pittsburgh Zoo successfully completed its five-year review in September, which means it meets or exceeds all safety standards. Steve Feldman, a spokesman for the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, said no one he's spoken to can recall any deaths of children at an accredited zoo over the last 40 years or more. Zoo officials said there is also a mesh barrier beyond the railing, but Kraus said it was designed to catch small objects such as cameras, and not humans. Visitors walk onto a deck that is glassed on the sides, but open in front where the railing is located. The dogs normally live in a 1.5 acre exhibit called the Painted Dog Bush Camp that's part of a larger open area called the African Savanna, where elephants, lions and other animals can be seen. The dogs hunt in packs in the wild, and Baker said that they "were in pack mentality" during the attack. They have large, rounded ears and dark brown circles around their eyes and are considered endangered. African wild dogs are also known as cape hunting dogs, spotted dogs, and painted wolves. Almost unheard of among social mammals, the Painted Hunting Dog's social structure is a submission-based hierarchy, meaning whoever begs the most gets the most food instead. The dogs are about as big as medium-sized domestic dogs, 2 to 2½ feet high and 37 to 80 pounds, according to the zoo. The endangered Painted Hunting Dog or African Wild Dog once numbered as many as 500,000 individuals but human population growth has shrunk that number to only about 3,000. The boy's father arrived on the scene soon after the accident, police said. The zoo was immediately closed it was not clear when it would be reopened, authorities said.Īuthorities didn't immediately release the name of the boy or his mother, but say she is 34 years old and lives in Pleasant Hills, just outside Pittsburgh. Three more eventually were drawn away from the child, but the last dog was aggressive and police had to shoot the animal, officials say. Zookeepers called off some of the dogs, and seven of them immediately went to a back building. When the boy fell, other visitors immediately told staff members, who responded along with Pittsburgh police. Zoo officials at first estimated the boy fell 14 feet, but police said it was 11. Kevin Kraus of the Pittsburgh police, who added that the dogs attacked "immediately" after the boy fell at about 11:45 a.m. It was not clear whether the boy died from the fall into the wild dog exhibit area or from the attack, said Barbara Baker, president and CEO of the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium. PITTSBURGH - A 2-year-old boy visiting the Pittsburgh zoo was killed Sunday morning when he fell off a railing that his mother had put him on top of to view a pack of African painted dogs, who pounced on the child and mauled him, police said.
0 kommentar(er)
