Update on Kolmarden zookeeper death

[La Striata]

NOTE: I tweaked the article a bit for better ease of reading, as the original was in Swedish, and the machine translator did a pretty choppy job. The original translation can be viewed here: http://translate.google.co.uk/translate ... 6bih%3D629

Her death at Kolmarden not yet investigated

Posted by Jesper Jönsson on Monday, June 17, 2013

A year ago, a zookeeper was killed by a pack of wolves at Kolmarden. Work Environment Authority considered that environmental prosecutor should prosecute, but it looks to take another year.

A year ago, we in VargFakta warned what would happen when "tame" wolves frequently met people for commercial purposes. Just before the keeper was killed, a 15-year-old girl was badly bitten by a wolf and taken to the hospital, which led us to strongly discourage Kolmarden from continuing guided visits to the wolves.

The historic compilation of attacks by wolves in captivity we made ​​gave us enough information to see the inappropriateness of this business. The call was not heard, of course, and the keeper had to pay with her life.

After her death, an investigation into the Swedish Work Environment Authority concluded that Kolmarden zoo should be indicted. Environmental attorney Jan Andersson was commissioned to investigate the case and has up to now not yet made a statement.

- "This case is unique, it is a complicated law that we have to deal with, with a lot of investigative material that must be collected. We have to be very careful with our investigations in this case and that is what it will take time" environmental prosecutor Jan Andersson says to Sveriges Radio.

Exactly why Andersson says that the accident is "unique" is difficult to know when history shows that it is not actually unique, rather plain or almost inevitable.

Identical case 1996

Patricia Wyman, age 24 , was a university educated biologist and hired as an attendant for the wolves on April 14, 1996, four days before her death. During training, she had been in contact with the wolves twice: First with her supervisor and then when she single-handedly fed them. Late in the afternoon, 18 April 1996 two other employees found Wyman's mangled remains of the wolf enclosure. The four attacking wolves appeared very threatening when police arrived. The wolves were killed and examined for rabies . The tests were negative. No rabies. Wolf Park's director Dr. Peter Schleifenbaum had an investigator interview staff. The investigator reported that the "staff were surprised; they thought that wolves were harmless."

Want to put it behind

Kolmården's management requested to put the incident behind them, which of course would be good for them, but justice must take its course, even though Kolmarden has since stopped allowing people into the wolf enclosure.

- "We know that these kinds of accidents often take time to investigate. It is clear that it is more difficult to know that this will take a long time for it is another thing in this whole tragedy that we Kolmarden would like to leave behind", says Mats Höggren.

A question not raised is why were the staff who were tasked to go to the wolves not armed? With a suitable handgun, an accident could have been averted. Perhaps one wolf would have been shot, but it would have been many times better than a dead employee.

[1BitJay]

I find this quite interesting saying her case was "unique". Nothing is unique. A human got killed by a so called tamed wolf, but a wolf who is bold around humans. You are not only punishing the wolves by keeping them, but allowing yourself unarmed in an enclosure with a human-exposed wild animal. Selfless and human acts. Pssh. Why call us humane?

[cherrybubblegum]

Wild means wild, and people shouldn't forget that.
Wolves aren't large, fluffy dogs.

[wolflovingperson]

Dudes. Had you forget humans ARE animals? :T

[DreamerDay]

Dudes. Had you forget humans ARE animals? :T

Uh, not technically. We humans fall in the category of 'Mammals', due to the fact women can deliver their own children. However, this doesn't mean we are animals. But then again, we are mammals. And we do have same potential, but we don't have the same minds/ mind set of them. Animals think more intelligently than most humans. X3

[Nordue]

• If we look at the phylogenetics of our species, Homo sapiens, we are indeed a member of the class Mammalia, or more commonly, the mammal group of animals. Since the class we fall under, Mammalia, fall under the kingdom Animalia, then I think it is safe to say that we are--in an evolutionary context--no less or more animal than a sponge!
  
  I can't tell for sure if you are being sarcastic about our intelligence DreamerDay , but I thought I would point out that we are considered animals by science just in case. Although our mental abilities in comparison to other species are fascinating!

[alethe]

Dudes. Had you forget humans ARE animals? :T

Does that mean we just excuse the attack? A human died.
On a side note, if a mentally unstable man attacks and kills another person, they get locked up or killed. Why should the punishment be different for an animal?

[TheImmortalWolf]

because the animals don't know right from wrong. they aren't killing out of hatret and because of visciousness only to survive.

[alethe]

But what if a mentally unstable person doesn't know right from wrong?

[TheImmortalWolf]

that is different
you cant compare them to wolves

[alethe]

Not really, no. If they're a threat to the public, then they should be dealt with properly, human, wolf, or any other animal.

[TheImmortalWolf]

wolves aren't a threat to the public

[alethe]

The one who killed this zoo keeper was.
Not all wolves are, I'll give you that, but when one does attack its no different than putting down a rabid dog.

[TheImmortalWolf]

The wolf probably had a reason for attack

[alethe]

That's enough of a reason to put it down.