Exactly. An animal’s life was terminated for no other reason than the utter stupidity of a dumb human. I have seen this before and always wonder if the animal will react defensively and in one situation to defend it’s baby. I hope these people are sued.
Growing up on a ranch, we pretty much did as we pleased as kids, and going to a crowded venue-a zoo, big store, etc-felt claustrophobic-my mom and aunts were well aware that all of us would escape and take off, with bad results-there were catalogs of kid supplies that offered little soft harnesses with leashes to keep kids from getting lost or harmed in crowds-or running amok and breaking stuff in fancy stores, getting mommy sued.
My sibling and I, as well as our cousins all wore them when we were in a crowd of strangers-our moms were not taking any chance that we would be harmed or cause havoc...
By the time I had my own cub, those kid harnesses were out of favor, so I had to keep a grip on her hand at all times in a crowd-she did not understand why she could not run all over like she did at home-there would have been no way at all I’d have let go of her for even 10 seconds...
I think public venues with dangerous animals or objects on exhibit should have a supply of those kid harnesses and leashes, and require that any child under a certain age wear one-with a parent holding the other end of the leash- while on the premises-incidents like the one at the zoo would be a lot less likely to happen...