February 23rd, 2005
Today in California a tiger was shot and killed in the wild. How did it get out in the wild? No one is sure yet. The sad thing is they killed it. I’m all for saving human life first, but I wish they would have exhausted all alternatives.
They
“had to shoot to kill because a tranquilizer would have taken five to 10 minutes to bring down the animal. They were concerned the animal might attack them or bolt onto a nearby highway.”
They could have tried the tranquilizer first and then moved to desperate measures. Two shooters, two rounds. Tranquilizer goes first. Tiger freaks out, take him down. But maybe, just maybe, the poor tired, disoriented tiger might have dropped without a fight and could have been saved.
We’ll never know. 
I saw that on the news this morning and said “What? They don’t have tranquilizer darts out there?” The hubby says if he’s facing down a tiger with a dart gun and a handgun, he knows which he’d choose.
It looked they were out in scrubby openness to me, and no doubt the tiger was confused and scared. I bet they could have circled it and just let it wander til the tranqs took effect.
What a senseless, horrible loss.
by Shannon February 24th, 2005 at 6:28 amThat really stinks. They should have waited the extra few minutes to use the tranquiling gun. As Shannon said, what a senseless and horrible loss.
by Cheyenne McCray February 24th, 2005 at 7:50 amOr nets, or cages, they had a lot of options. Obviously the person running the show didn’t want to waste time using them. It’s not like tigers are endangered or anything.
by Jordan February 24th, 2005 at 9:31 amYou’re right, Jordan. There were a lot of alternative methods.
by Sylvia