A captive Malaysian tiger, which refused to release the arm of a man who tried to pet it at a Florida zoo, died after a police officer shot him Wednesday night, local media reported.
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The 20-year-old employee of a cleaning company working for the zoo was seriously injured and had to be hospitalized.
He had entered Wednesday evening "in a prohibited zone near a tiger which was in its enclosure", after the closure to the public, specifies the police force of the county of Collier, where the zoo of the city of Naples is located.
According to the sheriff's Facebook post, the cleaning company is responsible for maintaining the washrooms and the gift shop, but not the animal enclosures.
An 8 year old male called Eko
The man then put his arm through an opening in the enclosure and "was stroking or feeding the animal", according to initial police reports, when the tiger grabbed him.
After kicking the fence of the enclosure in an attempt to let the feline let go, the first police officer to arrive shot the tiger, killing the 8-year-old male called Eko, according to local press.
Once touched, the animal dragged itself to the back of its enclosure, where it was sedated, says the BBC.
He died moments later.
Malaysian tigers are listed as Critically Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Less than 200 are left in the wild, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
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The zoo announced on its site the establishment for employees of psychological help facing "bereavement".
On the zoo's Facebook page, messages of support for employees and saddened comments abounded Thursday morning, lamenting the “unnecessary” death of a “magnificent tiger”.
Last year, a Siberian tiger attacked and killed a zookeeper in Switzerland, in front of zoo visitors and staff.
In 2007, one person was killed and two seriously injured when a tiger escaped from its cage at the San Francisco Zoo.
He had also been shot.
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