A drunken dumbass down in Florida decided he was going to “communicate” with a tiger in a cage at the local fair where he was working and promptly found out that the tiger didn’t feel like talking:
Jason Wayne Hardin, 25, of Westville, stuck his arm into the tiger’s cage about 2:25 a.m. Sunday, said Major Keith Riddick of the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office.
Hardin told wildlife officers that he was putting up fencing at the fair when he decided to “communicate” with the animal, Local 6 News reported.
The white tiger bit the man and severed a tendon in Hardin’s arm.
I guess the message being communicated here was “keep your fucking hands out of my cage.” Not that the local officials are any less clueless. Take this stunning bit of verbal gymnastics from Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokeswoman Kat Kelley:
“This was strictly human error and poor judgment,” she said. “These are wild animals, and no matter how tame they are, they’re still animals.”
No matter how tame the wild animal is it’s still an animal. Thank you Professor Dingbat.
Well, perhaps the spokesman meant that “no matter how tame they seem they’re still wild animals.” Equating that kind of poor phrasing with the idiocy of sticking your hand in a tiger’s cage doesn’t seem quite fair.
THIS!!!, THIS is why I read your blog Les!!
Damn good new reporting son! Keep up the good work.
(i love this story..)
What a dumbshit! And obviously a man completely ignorant of feline behavior…
Anyone who has lived with cats (of the domestic variety) knows full well that they can go from docile and purring to shredding the nearest human body part in the blink of an eye and a fury of fangs and claws – even when that body part is attached to the human that provides its food and care. Those of us fortunate enough to have been deigned worthy of feline companionship resign ourselves to the inevitable bites and scratches we’ll get because we’re not paying enough attention to the cat’s behavior to have seen it coming. Only an idiot would approach a HOUSE cat he doesn’t know without exercising extreme caution – never mind a freakin’ TIGER!
Thus spaketh the Crazy Cat Lady
Last year, someone neglected to close a double door in the jaguar cage at the zoo here in Vienna, and a worker (who was well known to the cats) was killed, just like that. No provocation or warning. Cats are predators.
Dickhead!
And that’s a fact, A?
Cats! My favourite animals.
They’re only one feed away from being feral.
Call a dog and he’ll come running, yappingyapping.
Call a cat and if she feels inclined she may even look back at you with distain as if to say: Leave a message. I’ll get back to you …
I had a cat in the last house I ‘lost’ to the bank.
Way too often to be coincidental, over the seven years we shared the house together, I’d wonder where she was and within moments she’d appear with a ‘you called?’ look.
Dogs have masters; cats have staff.
Well, he did successfully communicate with the critter. His message of “eat me” came across loud and clear.