Just two months after officials at the Cincinnati Zoo in Ohio shot and killed a gorilla when a small child fell into the enclosure after climbing over a wall, the Dublin Zoo in Ireland is investigating reports that a young boy was placed into the rhinoceros exhibit so he could have his picture taken.
One horrified zoo visitor told the Irish Mirror that the boy was in the enclosure for 20 minutes. “It was such a stupid thing to do. He was only metres away from the rhinos. People were totally horrified. The child was with a male relative who was getting him to pose for photos and trying to make the child go further in.”
You can see in the tweet below the man appearing to take a picture of the boy, who is clearly on the wrong side of the fence.
Just a child inside the rhino enclosure at @dublinzoo pic.twitter.com/xxsn8Dm5Ag
— Ciarán Ferrie (@ccferrie) July 30, 2016
In this second tweet you can see that the southern white rhinos, which can weigh thousands of pounds (3700 lbs. for the females and 5100 lbs. for the males), are just feet away from the young boy.
@ccferrie@DublinZoo this man had the child in behind the fence for good 20 minutes ! pic.twitter.com/BzhhUW5Obr — Adrianna Straszewska (@Adriannasss) July 31, 2016
A spokesperson for Dublin Zoo said that the matter is being “taken care of internally” by the zoo. “It’s completely against Dublin Zoo’s health and safety rules but it is being looked into at the moment.”
If there’s any part of you that thinks putting your child into a pen with a 2 ton animal that can run 25 mph might be a good idea, watch the video on the next page to see the bad things that can happen to objects that meet the business end of a rhino horn.
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