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Snow leopard on the loose in Belgium shot
Authorities near the Belgian city of Liege were forced to shoot and kill a snow leopard that escaped a zoo Tuesday night. The news comes as a sad ending for the animal that arrived from Austria only two weeks ago.
The leopard escaped through a window Tuesday morning at the Monde Sauvage safari park around 10am, spurring an intense search that included tracking dogs carried on throughout the day until the early hours of Wednesday.
According to zoo officials, the animal was finally found in a parking lot inside the park, but security was left with no choice but to shoot.
Students in the area were kept indoors for safety precautions, as residents feared the animal was loose in the neighbourhood. Zoo officials are investigating to find out how the animal was able to escape.
Comments
There was no need to shoot-to-kill this beautiful, rare and courageous leopard, far more terrified than terrifying presumably. "Security had no option"? Is that so? "Security" could have used tranquiliser darts and other non lethal methods. You do not make the headlines that way, of course... Honi soit...
I support absolutely the comment above. The snow leopard is on the Red List of globally endangered species, so I am appalled by the handling of this incident (not to mention the fact that it could occur at all). Were no checks made before such a precious creature was entrusted to this facility?
Can't believe this happened. What a mess! Who gave the order? Did they not know how few of these beautiful animals currently remain. Totally agree with the comments above. Really appalled by the decision.
To the three comments above: Were you there? Do you have intimate knowledge of the circumstances? No? Well then your opinions aren't worth much.
@R.HARRIS: And were YOU there?? -- Furthermore: you need not be on the spot to voice an opinion. This killing was ignorant and WRONG. So I beg to differ...
It doesn't matter who was there at the time to understand this situation. Yes, it's a shame they shot the snow leopard but, it comes down to human safety. This is the fault of the zoo security/person who was in charge of safety for this snow leopard. They are the fault for the death of this awesome creature :-( we are all human and are not perfect but, we also must not be complaisant in any way regarding any animal, no matter what the size of window that may have been left open. We do not leave anything to chance
No matter what the situation was - tranquiliser shots should have been used. We as humans, imprisoning animals like that - for any reason - good or bad - are ultimately responsible for these animals. There is no excuse for security not to have these measures available at all times. It's disgusting. R.Harris - you are a disgrace and the Zoo is a disgrace.
Why on earth could they not use tranquilliser darts? Poor animal! And as others have pointed out, a species already on the endangered list. Appalling!