Father Saves 3-Year Old Daughter From a Bear in a German Zoo
Posted: Sunday, August 22, 2010
by Joel Kontinen
http://joelkontinen.blogspot.com/
Last week, a Dutch family visiting a small zoo in Lnebach in western Germany lived through a frightening adventure that nonetheless had a happy ending. When the parents were not looking, their three-year old daughter climbed over a 1.05 meter-high fence (just over three feet) into an enclosure housing a huge Asiatic black bear.
The girl fell into a moat surrounding the enclosure. When her father realised what had happened, he rushed in after her. However, the bear managed to hit the toddler with his paw before the father snatched her to safety.
Bystanders called an ambulance and the father and daughter were flown by helicopter to hospital. Their wounds are not serious and both are expected to recover fully. However, it will probably take owever a longer time for their emotional wounds to be healed.
A police spokeswoman told the press that the p olice are investigating the case, as it might involve negligence on the part of either the parents or the zoo, or perhaps both. Three years ago, the same bear attacked a zookeeper, injuring his arm.
A possible take-home lesson of this episode is that bears are wild animals that do not exactly welcome humans into the territory they regard as their own, so parents should take good care of their little children in zoos, which should have proper fences or walls to keep visitors at a save distance from animals that often react in a unpredicted way to intrusions.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)It doesn't take much more than a second to lose track of a child in a public place. How frightening for all involved. It's good to hear it came out all right.GraceThanks for reading, Grace. I agree.
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