Leopard Mauls Child On Kansas Zoo Field Trip

WICHITA, Kan. -- A first-grader on a school field trip to a zoo was mauled by a leopard Friday after the boy scaled a railing and approached the animal's cage, a zoo spokesman said.

The Wichita Eagle reported on its website that the boy received lacerations to his head and neck after the cat stuck a paw through its cage and grabbed the boy by the side of the head. He was taken to a hospital, where he was listed in fair condition.

Jim Marlett, spokesman for the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, said the boy climbed the 4- to 5-foot railing surrounding the leopard exhibit, crossed an 8-foot gap and stood next to the metal mesh fence of the animal's cage.

Naomi Robinson, who was at the zoo with her two children when she saw the attack around 1:20 p.m., said it looked like the leopard was trying to pull the boy into the enclosure.

"It happened so quick," she said.

The boy began screaming as soon as the leopard grabbed him. A man and woman nearby jumped over the railing and ran to help him, Robinson said.

The cat let loose of the boy when the man kicked it in the head, Robinson said. Bystanders wrapped the boy's head in shirts and towels to stop the bleeding as he lay on the ground between the fence and leopard case.

"It was terrible," Robinson said. "I'm really shaken right now. I'm just glad my children didn't see it. They were looking the other way."

A Wichita School District spokeswoman told The Associated Press that counselors were sent to the zoo to talk with children who saw the attack.

"Our main focus was to make sure our student was taken care of, and also the students who were at the zoo when the incident occurred," spokeswoman Susan Arensman said. "Not only that school, but many other schools were there. We set up a crisis team, talked to kids who witnessed this, and sent home letters to the parents of kids who were at the zoo to let them know what happened."

She said she was told a dozen schools from her district were either at the zoo at the time of the attack or arriving. She didn't provide an immediate count of the number of students and adults who attended the trip.

Arensman said the district has gotten several different versions of what happened to the Linwood Elementary student.

"It depends on who you talk to," she said. "We're getting conflicting reports of what happened. Some say he was by himself. Some say lots of people were around. It's been told 20 different times, what actually happened."

The boy's age hasn't been released, but Arensman said first-graders are generally 7 or 8 years old

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Comments

[Applecheeks]

11:33 PM on 05/11/2011

Thanks for the advice, I didn't really think anyone would respond. I am not worried about his safety. The LA Zoo is pretty secure.. But I did volunteer to go. I was a kindergarten aide for many years and am familiar with the ins and outs of watching out for 5 and 6 year olds. No one's getting mauled on my watch!

[BeautifulWorld]

11:23 AM on 05/11/2011

Hope all those time outs and non spanking work for you. Personally, I have yet to see a well behaved child out in public save two in the past seven years.

[European1919]

08:46 AM on 05/11/2011

Hungry pussycat 1:0 dumb kid.

And those teachers who ought to have been looking after the kids on their outing should be taken to court.

[ADRealist]

03:03 AM on 05/11/2011

Well at least when the kid gets older he will know to leave wild animals the hell alone. It was a valuable lesson, "You see those teeth - yeah, it's for eating people."

[Mark Montgomery]

06:49 PM on 05/10/2011

"The boy's age hasn't been released, but Arensman said first-graders are generally 7 or 8 years old"

[Kimiko Austin-Rijs]

04:23 AM on 05/11/2011

By the time I was 7 or 8 I was in second and third grade.

[saami]

03:38 PM on 05/10/2011

Obviously not the leopard's fault, and where were the adults when this was going on. I hope no one does something terrible to the leopard.

[Kimiko Austin-Rijs]

04:30 AM on 05/11/2011

I am not going to blame the adults for this one. Children are not angelic cherubs that seek peace and tranquility. Having been one myself, I know that they can be mischievous and sneaky. Daring each other to undertake dangerous feats, not fully aware of those dangers EVEN when told specifically not to. Boys are REALLY bad for this kind of behavior. I am sorry for what happened to the little boy, I really am; however, he is lucky to be alive and I am sure that this is something that he will not repeat in the future.

I hope that they do not do anything to this lepeord as he is just doing what wild animals in and out of a cage do. I hope that this teacher and school is not penalised as they do not really deserve it. These things do happen when you get a group of curious and cheeky children together, it could have been worse but it wasn't.

[saami]

02:05 PM on 05/12/2011

Good point! Kids just look like little sweet hearts, but can do some stupid stuff especially when in a group. Double dare you...

[Master-T]

03:04 PM on 05/10/2011

Yet more evidence of the disgrace that zoos are. Anyone who thinks zoos are places of learning and education for children is delusional. This is basically what goes on at zoos. The animals are penned up in small enclosures, and children taunt them. The rest aren't even remotely interested. And this animals suffer for this nonsense, and profits for the zoo owners.

The kid learned a lesson. Wild animals belong in the wild. Of course, he doesn't really know that. What with the "crisis response" these people set up, I'm sure the last thing they taught the kids was that animals don't belong in zoos.

[Wibbly Wobbly]

11:52 PM on 05/10/2011

I don't ever remember any of us kids taunting the animals on field trips...

[ADRealist]

03:01 AM on 05/11/2011

My wife and I just visited a Zoo a couple of days ago. About 3 hours away from Wichita actually. I remember how inspirational it was to see animals that normally I would never witness in real life, and walked away inspired on a personal level, and as an artist. The more people come in contact with these rare animals the more likely they will be too put an emphasis on habitat preservation and have mutual respect all around.

If we passed laws and treated each individual based on the absolute most stupid actions of a single decision - then our society would not be a fun place to live at all.

[bad spelling grammar]

02:47 PM on 05/10/2011

This is 100% the chaperone fault for leaving the boy unattended, and any adults who saw the boy climbing the fence should have yelled at the kid to get off the fence. This could of easily been avoided if the chaperone was present and doing his/her job.

[Kimiko Austin-Rijs]

04:38 AM on 05/11/2011

I do not agree at all. If the chaperones are responsible for 20 to 30 children and you get a few of those cheeky sneaks that decide to do something mischievous then it is hard to anticipate their every move. I have been responsible for a group of children and they can be fast and sneaky. Even parents can't know every move their children will make, so it is unfair to expect it from someone else. He/she or they did the best they could.

This child bears some responsibility for his own actions which I am sure that he is living with.

[bad spelling grammar]

10:08 AM on 05/11/2011

If a chaperone has to watch 20-30 kids then they need to get more people to watch smaller groups of kids. The child was only in 1st grade and is very young to be held responsible. Either way the chaperone was legally responsible because the kid was under 18.

[heroine addict]

01:03 PM on 05/10/2011

I've read a lot of people criticizing the boy for being naive about wild animals.... but my own sister (late 20s) walked up to a Grizzly cub in Yellowstone last summer and started taking pictures. Momma bear was not in sight. She even grew up in the country!

[catlover1978]

04:54 PM on 05/09/2011

This boy is all the fault of the boy. Why was nobody watching him? I would have taken him longer than a few unnoticed seconds to jump the fence. There's a reason those fences are there. It is sad that the leopard will likely be punished. The poor animal is out of his natural habitat of hunting and some prey nears his cage. Of course he will attack!

[mebecarl]

11:21 PM on 05/09/2011

Catlover, you're an idiot! The boy's CHAPERONE was partly at fault. The largest percentage of fault belongs to the ZOO. Quite obviously the primary fence wasn't tall enough, and the actual cage that contained the cat had openings big enough for the cat to get his paw through. Charge and fine the zoo personnel.

[Kimiko Austin-Rijs]

04:42 AM on 05/11/2011

Please! Children can be fast and sneaky. The CHAPERONES are responsible for more than one child, this is why it is important that people teach their children how to behave AT HOME. So when they go out they don't do stupid things like this.

In all fairness to parents however, no matter what you teach them kids will do stupid and dangerous things not fully understanding the price that could possibly be paid. Americans are so stupid about ALWAYS focusing on who to blame instead of taking some responsibility for their actions.

[BeautifulWorld]

11:31 AM on 05/11/2011

No different than humans, do you really think we are supposed to live in high rise apartments and the like? No! Human beings are nomadic, and don't say we have a choice because no we don't, not as individuals, not anymore. Just try pitching a tent on your own land with no running water and see how swiftly your hauled off along with your family.

[PMReilly]

04:26 PM on 05/09/2011

Seems a shame that what happened to an overactive child and the lack of supervision of the adults looking out for him will be blamed on the Leopard, who was only acting instinctively, and may end up in the destruction of this beautiful animal. What I cannot understand is how the child scaled a 5 foot barrier, crossed an 8 foot gap and no one in his group noticed, or anyone in the area for that matter until he was up by the leopard's enclosure. There will be conflicting reports all the time, especially trying to shift the blame for the incident, and the parents will be out with the lawyers suing the Zoo for their child's temerity. In our over litigious society no one accepts responsibility and this is going to be just another instance of that.

[Ogg-the-bear]

10:22 AM on 05/09/2011

Good for him! He took a risk & learned a lesson (some fences are best left minded). All the hoohah about chaperones.... Meh. Sounds like the adults that managed to notice took appropriate action. All is well and time will heal. Hopefully there won't be massive amounts of stupid litigation. The leopard saw movement and responded as a leopard normally would, "food! Git some!" I bet it was pretty terrifying. But that's an important thing to fully comprehend. My own son used to think, oh neat big kitties. Then he saw a kill in our local hills. He put it together. We mean it when we say don't run ahead of us in cougar country. There's a damned fine reason for it. Anyway, glad the boy is in at least fair condition. It's gonna hurt for a while, I'm sure.

[BeautifulWorld]

11:33 AM on 05/11/2011

Ogg-the-bear, yours is one of the very few intelligent and knowledgeable comments regarding the above article. Thanks for posting it.

[AbeMartin]

08:17 AM on 05/09/2011

The first grader is either a pretty formidable athlete to be able to scale a 4-5 foot wall, or the design of it was seriously flawed to permit the kid to get over it.  He is lucky to be alive.

[Ogg-the-bear]

10:24 AM on 05/09/2011

My kid could climb stone walls of buildings to the roofline when he was 6. Sounds like normal boy skills to me.

[PMReilly]

04:30 PM on 05/09/2011

Kids do the darndest things, they will climb up a smooth wall if you let them. Where were the responsible adults when he was climbing the fence? They are the ones to blame for a child to take off on his own and climb the fence, which I am sure had more than enough hand and foot holds. To say that the design is flawed is a cop out, and fodder for the lawsuit hungry who will grab on to anything in order to sue.

[Giverny]

07:25 AM on 05/09/2011

I know kids can be facetious but where was the child's chaperone? During a school event where animals were brought in an attempt to discuss extinction of different species they asked if anyone would like to pet the boa constrictor. My daughter who loved animals stepped up to let them lay the snake on her shoulder. Suddenly, the snake decided she was prey and constricted. The school called to tell me she was "alright" but it took 5 teachers and the handlers to free my child from the snakes grip. She had bruises but no broken bones. There had been no announcement of any special event to begin with so imagine my surprise when they asked me to pick up my child from being traumatized by a boa constrictor. My conclusion is teachers should not be responsible for the safety of MY child around wild animals or zoos and apparently it holds true. I know this is a lesson in random accidents and children not listening but isn't that what adults are for? On school trips we had to have an adult for every 5-6 students. The idea was this; if it can be done, some child will try to do it. He is a minor, he was in the care of the school. How did they miss him?

[PMReilly]

04:33 PM on 05/09/2011

I most definitely agree with you. Whenever my children had field trips, I was the first adult to sign up as a chaperone. I am happy to say that nothing untoward ever happened while I was there, and I not only kept an eye on my kids, but also on the rest of the group.

[Kimiko Austin-Rijs]

04:46 AM on 05/11/2011

I am sure that this all happened so fast that they did not have time to miss him. It is not like these things drag out over the course of hours. This kid was quick. Unfortunately these things happen because like you said, if it can be done some kid will try to do it. They with intention slip away from adults and in a matter of seconds to do their little cheeky task. I did it when I was a kid. I am lucky to be alive with some of the nonsense I got up to. LOL!

[Elizabeth Trogdon]

01:28 AM on 05/09/2011

I volunteered at our local zoo for several years and it was always a struggle to get kids to behave. I've stopped them from climbing fences, trying to feed chocolate to animals, and other bad behavior and every last kid had a parent or other adult nearby! One boy was bitten by an otter while his grandmother stood by, watching him climb down into their enclosure! Then the paper made him a hero for choosing the preventative rabies shots to keep them from killing the otter. (Many animals cannot have rabies shots as they're not made for them).
Zoos are the last hope of many species and often provide a far better environment than can be find in our vanishing wilderness. People care more about creatures they can see and this aids in protecting them.
If I could, I'd have a zoo employee or volunteer at every exhibit to prevent things like this.

[Ogg-the-bear]

10:25 AM on 05/09/2011

OTOH, it's good for kids to learn not everything in a display is a toy. You can't protect them from everything at all times. That's a fools errand.

[Kimiko Austin-Rijs]

04:50 AM on 05/11/2011

True. You can't wrap them in cotton. They must learn to survive the dangerous world that they live in and they can only do that if they are taught to be responsible for their own actions. We were taught that you can not pet lion at the zoo as he would kill you. We were told the truth about their natures and not lead to believe that every animal is like the cartoons you see on TV.

[BeautifulWorld]

11:36 AM on 05/11/2011

Hero? He should've been smacked senseless, and I don't care who disagrees. Spanking a kid to prevent future danger is not abuse, lack of discipline is.

Take a good look around at the heathens today's parents are raising. No excuse.