@Morris_Monye / Twitter
A man working at the Jamaica Zoo learned the hard way that it’s not smart to stick your hand inside an aggravated lion’s cage to try and poke it in the face.
Video footage filmed by onlookers showed the man antagonizing the big cat stuck his hands through a chain-linked fence just mire inches away from its mouth as the lion tried to bite his fingers.
He was able to get away with it the first few times, placing his hand in the lion’s mouth as the beast had it open and tried to bite down on it every time he harassed it.
It wasn’t until the man rubbed the cheak of the lion and the lion snapped at him quicker than he could pull his hand back, that the lion actually grabbed a ahold of one of his fingers.
Visitors at the zoo eyewitnessing the incident thought it was a joke and the man was just showing off but things started to get serious real quick.
“When it happened, I thought it was a joke. I didn’t think it was serious. I didn’t realise the seriousness of it, because it’s their job to put on a show,” a visitor watching the incident told the Jamaica Observer. “Obviously, when he fell on the ground everybody realised that it was serious. Everybody started to panic.”
She then added some rather gruesome details, “The entire skin and about the first joint of his finger was gone.”
The visitors ended up posting the video to social media where it went absolutely viral and spraked concerns for the welfare of the anaimls at the zoo, as well as the treament giving to them by the staff.
Pamela Lawson, the managing director at the Jamaica Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals told the Jamaica Observer that the incident would be investigated.
“We will be going down there and I will be communicating with the National Environment and Planning Agency who has oversight over Jamaica Zoo,” she said.
Later on, Jamaica Zoo released a public statemnt on Instagram to assure the public that the zoo is safe place for both people and animals to visit.
“The management and staff here at Jamaica Zoo wishes to reassure the public that we pride ourselves on the love, care, and professional treatment our animals receive,” the statement reads.
“The actions displayed in a video [are of] a contractor [of] Jamaica Zoo [are] tragic and do not represent the safety procedures and policies that must be adhered to at all times at Jamaica Zoo.”
The zoo added, “It is an unfortunate event that should never have happened, and we – the family of Jamaica Zoo – are doing everything to assist the gentleman moving forward.”
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An investigation has offically been launched by Jamaica Zoo in an a attempt to prevent similar injuries from happening agian in the future.
Visitor Morris Monye who happned to film a video of the incidne and posted it to Twitter got a lot of comments from his followers who were condeming the man for treating the lion that way.
One person commented on Twitter saying, “Look, like, he was agitating the lion. Kept patting his face, trying to get a rise out of him. I pray the man gets better soon. People need to respect animals. Poor lion is already behind bars, and then this man goes and puts his hands in his face.”
A second peron said, “Screw the idiot that shoved his hand in the lion’s mouth.”
Watch the footage of the incdnet below and tell us what you think about it!
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