A Chinese man jumped into a tiger enclosure at Chengdu Zoo to apparently ‘feed the tigers’. According to some witnesses the man wanted to improve the lives of caged tigers by offering them his own body to eat. The man was found with rice in his backpack and it’s not known whether he intended to feed the tigers the rice or himself.
Yang Jinhai, 27, jumped into the enclosure in front of horrified visitors. As he began dancing around like a crazy person, one of the tigers, a female retreated to a wall, unsure of what was happening. However another tiger dragged him around the enclosure, until zoo workers were able to rescue him. The man was unharmed after the ordeal however had to be restrained by zoo officials.
According to Yang’s family he had been depressed for some time. In recent months he had moved from job to job after becoming dissatisfied. He had originally stated to be happy with his life and was optimistic about work, however it seems that was not to last. The stressor which led to the incident came after Yang visited a local zoo. He wrote online about how depressing it was to see the ‘noble and magnificent tigers’ living in such humble surroundings. He was uncomfortable with them being caged and unable to follow their natural instincts.
He decided to sacrifice himself in order to provide the Bengal tigers with support. According to an eye witness, Feng Lin said: ‘He climbed up the outside of the cage and jumped inside expecting, I assume, that the tigers would pounce on him. Instead the two tigers, a male and a female, seemed more nervous than anything else and the female actually ran off. He then tried to antagonise the tigers by pulling faces at them. Eventually he was attacked by the male where he was cut after being scratched and bitten before he could be rescued by zoo keepers who fired a tranquilliser dart at the male tiger.’
A member of staff at the zoo stated that “If it had been a Siberian tiger, the consequences would have been unimaginable.” He was also lucky, because the tigers had just been fed 16 pounds of meat which means that if they hadn’t eaten anything for a while which is the norm, then the situation would have most likely been entirely different. In 2010 when a zookeeper in Shanghai was mauled by a Bengal tiger after someone had forgotten to feed it the day before.
Yang is now in the care of his family, who state that he has been depressed for some time. He is now receiving psychiatric counselling to cope with his problems.