Death Penalty for Jaguar

by Jordan Yerman | February 25, 2007 at 12:22 pm

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In Denver, a jaguar was shot to death for the crime of being a jaguar. I understand that he mauled a zookeeper to death, and that saddens me, but surely there was another way to subdue the animal besides killing it. A jaguar is a big, dangerous jungle cat; keeping one in a zoo does not change that fact, and now two beings are dead instead of one. Does that make sense to you? Not a rhetorical question, by the way-- please weigh in!

A zookeeper at the Denver Zoo died Saturday after a 140-pound jaguar mauled her in its enclosure. The animal was fatally shot when it approached armed emergency workers attempting to treat the injured woman, the zoo said.

The keeper was not identified by police.

The park closed after the shooting; it was not immediately clear whether it would reopen Sunday, zoo spokeswoman Amy Sarno said.

Zoo officials did not know how the mauling occurred or what led up to the incident, Sarno said.