iStockphoto / gguy44 / SKapl
Police in Bridgeton, NJ are searching for a woman who was seen on video climbing a protective fence in the tiger enclosure and nearly being attacked by a tiger, in a situation that almost certainly would’ve been a Harambe 2.0 moment resulting in the death of either the woman or the tiger, after the video of the woman has gone viral.
The Cohanzick Zoo in Bridgeton is in South Jersey way down by the Delaware/Delaware River border and not too far from Atlantic City. And the video of the woman coming face to face with the man-eating giant cat has gone viral after the Bridgeton PD requested any information from the public regarding the woman.
She can be seen within inches of the tiger:
In a statement, the police said “A female at the Cohanzick Zoo went over the wooden fence at the tiger enclosure and began enticing the tiger almost getting bit by putting her hand through the wire enclosure. We are asking if anyone recognizes the female in the video/photo.”
Had that tiger been able to stick its paw through the fence she easily could have lost an arm, if not worse. Tiger’s claws are 4 inches long and could easily have ripped into her flesh and pulled her against the tiny secondary fence as the tiger attacked her face.
What’s wild about this, IMHO, is tigers are definitely on the short list of animals that all human beings are born with an innate fear of. That list would include snakes at #1, likely followed by spiders, and then any man-eating animal like lions, tigers, sharks, etc. We are literally born with an innate fear of these creatures in order to ensure our species continues to exist.
Yet here she is, jumping a fence at the Cohanzick Zoo in Bridgeton, NJ and coming face-to-face with a tiger that would have licked her face off without thinking twice about it, and zoo keepers would have had to euthanize the tiger in order to save that woman’s life all because she refused to follow the rules.