A Tiger Bit Onto A Contracted Cleaner's Arm And Wouldn't Let Go. Deputies Had To Shoot It.

NAPLES, FL — A critically endangered Malayan tiger at a Naples, Florida, zoo was shot and killed Wednesday evening after biting a cleaning service worker’s arm and dragging it to his enclosure.

The injured man, who is in his 20s, was hired to clean the restrooms and gift shop after the zoo, but was not authorized to be in the tiger enclosure, according to investigators with the Collier County Sheriff’s Office, who were called to the zoo around 6:30 p.m.

The zoo had closed for the day when the man was attacked.

Authorities think the man was either petting or feeding the tiger Eko through fencing when the “tiger grabbed [his] arm and pulled it into the enclosure. Both activities are “unauthorized and dangerous,” authorities said.

One of the deputies kicked at the enclosure to try to get Eko to release the arm from his mouth, but had to shoot him to free the man, the sheriff’s office said.

The 8-year-old tiger, who came to the zoo in December 2019 from the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, died later, news station WINK reported.

The zoo said in a statement on its website that it would close for the day Thursday to allow zoo authorities to conduct their own internal investigation and give the staff a chance mourn Eko and process what had happened. Counselors were made available to staff, and the zoo said it planned to reopen on Friday.

Ethics Of Caging Tigers Debated

On Facebook, fans of Eko expressed sympathy for zoo staff but also questioned the ethics of keeping animals in cages for human enjoyment.

“The zoo failed an exotic animal. Period,” one person wrote. “There needs to be a total overhaul of the system in place when these attacks occur. That’s it. That’s the end of it. …”

Added another: “The zoo needs to reevaluate the use of third party cleaning services whose staff have no business being unattended near captive wildlife after business hours. The failure is on the zoo, too.”

“When will we humans ever learn to appreciate these wild creatures [from] the distance,” another person wrote. “My heart is broken.”

Follow the discussion below.

Notable Attacks By Captive Tigers

Attacks by captive tigers are rare. But they do happen. Here are a few of them:

• In 1985, two Siberian tigers attacked and killed a keeper at the Bronx Zoo.
• In 2003, Siegfried and Roy trainer Roy Horn was mauled by a Siberian tiger during a Las Vegas floor show.
• In 2005, a 17-year-old girl was fatally mauled by a tiger at the Lost Creek Animal Sanctuary in Kansas while posing with the cat for her high school graduation photo.
• In 2006, a zookeeper at the San Francisco Zoo was bitten on the arm by the the tiger Tatiana as visitors watched. Tatiana was shot and killed by police a year later after the tiger escaped, killing one person and injuring two others.
• In 2012, a man was mauled after leaping into a tiger enclosure at the Bronx Zoo.
• In 2015, a woman police said was drunk was bitten while trying to pet a tiger after she sneaked into the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha.
• In 2019, two Bengal tigers attacked conservationist Patty Perry during a donor event at her sanctuary in Moorpark, California.
• In 2020, a tiger bit and seriously injured a volunteer during feeding time at Carol Baskin’s Big Cat Rescue sanctuary in Florida.

'A Great Ambassador For His Species'

Fewer than 200 mature Malayan tigers remain in the wild, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species.

Native to the forests and mangrove swamps of Malyasia, their survival is threatened by habitat loss, poaching for their bones and skin, depletion of their prey and tiger-human conflict.

Eko was transferred to the Naples Zoo through its participation in the Malayan tiger Species Survival Plan. The zoo doesn’t have a breeding program but cares for young adult cats. When the tiger arrived in Naples, officials said he would be turned over to another accredited zoo if he was selected by the SSP for breeding.

The zoo had called the tiger “a great ambassador for his species.”

“When guests see him, we hope they fall in love and want to learn how they can do their part to save his cousins in the wild,” the zoo wrote of his arrival two years ago.

One way to save tigers’ habitat is to choose products made with sustainable palm oil, the most widely produced edible vegetable oil in the world. It is used in foods such as cookies, potato chips, and bread, and in a wide array of personal care products.

“Unfortunately, some companies clear cut forests to produce palm oil — leading to the deaths of tigers and orangutans,” the zoo noted.

The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs, Colorado, created an app to help shoppers identify products with sustainably grown palm oil. It's available for download on the Naples Zoo website.