Barrier Breaching - Toddler Falls Into Cheetah Exhibit at Cleveland Zoo

In an effort to organize thousands of photos for my blogging catch-up, I saw so many photos of Barrier Breaching.  I take a photo every chance I get when I see this.  This is one of my big pressure points.  I have been writing about it for years.  You can search this blog for other posts on this subject.  

That said, I don't have time to resize everything, so I tossed them into Movie Maker and made a Video.      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBsDaBrMZIU

There is a continuous stream of People/Kids leaning, sitting, standing, on or over Barriers.   

A- What's wrong with them?

B- Why doesn't the Zoo take this more seriously.  

Let's examine A- first.  Doing this falls into three categories.  Stupid, Care-less (as in they could Care less about the Animals), or Sinister.  Unless you are trying to harm an Animal or yourself in doing so, there are two basic notes about this. 1-Its disrespectful to the Animal.  These are their homes, its the same as leaning into someones window.  2- If you fall in or drop your kid in, the Animal loses its life in an effort to retrieve you or your kid.  ... Now for those who think they have a grip on their kid when doing this, so did the Parents in the following articles.  Anything can happen.  Someone can bump you, you could mis-step or mis-handle.  Accidents happen.  

I posted about this one, you can search the blog for it.  But, here'e the News link.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/us/article/2-year-old-boy-killed-at-Pa-zoo-exhibit-4007421.php

I had this one in queue and forgot to leave a space for a stand alone post on it.  It would have mimiced the one I did on Pittsburgh, so its fine I'll just include it here for Awareness. ... Thankfully the Cleveland Zoo filed charges against the Parents in this one.  It was time someone at a Zoo took a stand on this behavior.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/04/12/child-in-cheetah-exhibit/25666839/

Now let's talk about B-.  I know the Zoo reads my blog, so why don't they take this more seriously?  I will note they have made a few improvements to help deter, but nothing that has made a difference, as I still see it being done.

They added signs at one point, a couple years ago, so wordy that no one pays attention to them.  My guess is they were not meant to deter, but to cover themselves.  .. It was always curious that there were only two, one at Greater One-Horned Rhinoceros and at one Polar Bear.

Only since May this year have I seen any other efforts.  One being added metal to the barriers at Hippo and Greater One Horned Rhino, the other graphic don't cross signs.  

The little over one inch lip that was added to 

the Hippo barrier, in the same color as the barrier.

I still see people hang their kids over this lip.

 On the left you can see the sign placement,
which is behind where the people on the right are standing.
Oh, and hanging their kid over the barrier.

These in my opinion are both useless.  A larger scale universal stance should be taken against this behavior.  That said, since it hasn't been, you have to wonder if they actually care about the Safety of the Animals?

I attempted last New Years to post a Call to Action for a thought I had.  A Go Red Campaign, where I had painted all the barriers red in photos.  Time got away from me, I can't find the folder of pix,... Still I think its a great idea.  Sure it won't stop all the fools, but it would do a lot better job that a sign that may not be in direct line of sight, or a metal addition that blends with the existing barrier.  If people want to endanger themselves and their kids that's on them, I don't want to ever hear an Animal lost its life because of a situation like this.

If the above barrier were painted red, 

then it would act like a STOP Sign.

If anything you read moves you,

Please contact the SFZoo Director

Tanya Peterson

tanyap@sfzoo.org

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