A critically endangered tiger was shot and killed by a sheriff's deputy Wednesday after a man was attacked by the animal at a zoo in Naples, Florida, officials said. The man, who is in his 20s, was seriously injured when he entered an unauthorized area of the tiger enclosure at the Naples Zoo at Caribbean Gardens and began either petting or feeding the tiger, the Collier County Sheriff's Office said in a Facebook post. The man was part of a third-party cleaning service contracted by the zoo to clean restrooms and the gift shop, not the animal enclosure, the sheriff's office noted. The tiger grabbed the man's arm and pulled it into the enclosure after he crossed "an initial fence barrier and put his arm through the fencing of the tiger enclosure," the sheriff's office statement said. The first deputy to respond to the scene kicked the enclosure and attempted to get the tiger to release the man's arm, but the deputy "was forced to shoot the tiger," the sheriff's office said.

Source: Ethiopian News December 30, 2021 13:34 UTC