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When Heather Baltzor got her 13-month-old son, Jack, ready for his first trip to the Oregon Zoo in Portland, she thought nothing of dressing him in a black-and-white striped hoodie.
It was only after a video of a hungry lion aggressively trying to paw at her son through a glass-paned wall went viral that she realized perhaps a hoodie that made her son look like a zebra was not the best zoo attire.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5syUpu6E8OE
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This is actually real scary for me as many years ago(1993). I took my family to a wildlife rescue, just outside of Orlando Fl. They had 3 Cougars/Mountain Lions. My youngest son Brandon was 3. The cats were in a full chainlink enclosure. As we passed by, one of the cats got up and started rumbling and growling real low, and followed the movements of my wife with my little boy. I noticed the intenseness of the cat and asked the keeper why it was acting like that. He told us the cat doesn't see a little boy, it see's food. and since it had been in the wild, it was used to killing it's own food. We were amazed at this, but left the area as it was quite unnerving.
The story part 2. About 5 years later, we had left Fl and moved back to Arkansas. Our youngest son now was Jeremiah he was almost 3. We heard of a wild life refuge in Greenbrier Ar. About 1 1/2 hours away. Having the same picture of solid cages, well laid out, enclosures, etc as we had seen if Florida. We took the kids, 4 in all. Upon arrival it was clear that it was a shoddy setup compared to what we had seen in Florida! But we had all enjoyed the other one so much, we thought what the heck. We notice the cages had no tops at all. Just 4" square fence wire about 12' high. They had all kinds of animals. A buffalo, racoons, bobcats, deer, alligators,etc. They also had an African Lion. We were 2/3 the way through the gounds when we got to the Cougars/Mountain Lions enclosure. I was holding Jeremiah by the hand. When the biggest female spied Jeremy! She imediately got up and locked focus on him and started that grumbling and growling. Just like the one in Fl did, the only problem was this enclosure didn't have a top on it! And the Fences were only 12' high! I told my wife to grab Jeremy and get the hell out of there while I tried to distract the Cougar. She imediately realized as I had what was going on, and grabbed Jeremy. I put myself between the cat and Jeremy, and began flayling my arms, clapping my hands and yelling at the cat, so she could'nt stay foucsed on Jeremy, as my wife was leading him away. After they were a 100 yards or so away, the cat finally calmed down. And we avoided a near catastrophe. Cause I don't know what it feels like to be eaten by a Cougar. but she was gonna have to fight me first to get to my son!
So as we heard in the video, they were all laughing and thinking it was funny. Well take it from someone who has been on a different side of that glass. That is a Real Cougar/ Lion and given the chance IT CAN, AND WILL EAT YOU!!!
THank You God! JTS 71 Mach1
We complained to the owners, and they said they had never had one act like that. And they didn't seem to think it was that big of a problem. They were shut down about 6 months later.
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I agree Jack.
Take it from someone who was raised in Africa. People are a real part of the food chain - the slow part.
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(05-05-2012, 12:49 PM)Steven Harris Wrote: I agree Jack.
Take it from someone who was raised in Africa. People are a real part of the food chain - the slow part.
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I saw this on CNN too. Maybe funny for a second, but scary after that.
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YEP damn scary! JTS 71 Mach1
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Why don't lions eat clowns?
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They taste funny