“Run! The beast is out of the cage!” how these shouts will have affected a crowd of hundreds of people? A similar situation was seen on Friday at the Lahore Zoo when a bear cub escaped through hands of the Zoo staff while being shifted from one cage to another and entered the tiger’s moat. The cub caused fear in people enjoying the pleasant monsoon after rain. The cub remained safe, as the tiger moat was empty. The one-year-old bear was soon taken back to its original destination.
When Lahore Zoo Director Dr Zahid Iqbal was asked about the accident, he preferred to tell the zoo administration’s achievement first and said that the management has been successful in breeding bears and has six bear cubs presently. Two bear cubs were kept for the public to see while two more were being shifted to the cage. During the shifting process, one bear slipped through the door and entered the tiger moat.
The zoo staff trapped the cub in a room from where it was shifted to its cage. The zoo director said that it all happened in 10 minutes without any problem caused to visitors. “When the cub slipped, some people spread rumours that the bear had escaped, as a matter of fact the cub was not able to harm anybody and the situation was also controlled in a few minutes,” Dr Zahid said. Children were also in trouble, as their parents stopped them from walking freely. Families were seen gathering and counting their children.
But after the zoo administration announced to have captured the cub, visitors took a sigh of relief. People were found questioning that if a tiger had escaped instead of a bear, what would have happened? Some people also criticised the zoo administration. Children were seen rushing between the bear cage and tiger moat to see the episode themselves.
