This is what happens when people have inappropriate conceptions about animal behavior
Note: I originally wrote this article almost a month ago, before the incident involving the teenagers and the tiger at the San Francisco Zoo. After that incident, I decided to hold off posting this until the matter calmed down a bit. Now that reddit isn’t being spammed with constant updates on the incident, I feel its safe to throw my two cents into the conversation, though I will not address this particular incidentspecifically.
As explained in this article (Warning: graphic picture), a man was mauled to death by two tigers when he climbed over a protective barrier, and stuck his arm through the bars of the cage to take a close up picture with his cell phone. To paraphrase a comment from bash.org, they should put something in the cage to deter people from getting near it. Perhaps a fierce animal that would attack anyone that got too close?