A 20-year-old-man’s attempt at suicide is going viral after he stripped his clothes off and jumped into the lion enclosure at the Santiago Zoo in Chile, as reported in The Guardian. The man who has been identified as Franco Luis Ferrada Roman was rescued and rushed to the hospital and doctors are counting on the next 24 hours to see if Ferrada will survive the injuries to his face and pelvis; but tragically, the two disturbed lions that attacked him had to be shot dead to salvage the unfortunate incident.
The man was a visitor to the park who trespassed into into an area of the zoo where the public are not normally allowed. He forced open the roof of the lion’s enclosure before he jumped in, took off his clothes and taunted the lions into attacking him.
The zookeepers who arrived on the scene tried to disperse the animals by first spraying water, and then shooting a tranquiliser. But when it rains it pours and the shot hit the man instead of the lions. They later had to resort to gunfire and the two animals were killed in front of traumatised people and children who were vacationing.
Director of the zoo, Alejandra Montalba said, “The alarms sounded and chemical control arrived [tranquiliser darts] and an independent shooter arrived. The shooter decided to save the life of the person and unfortunately we had to sacrifice two members of our family,” she said.”
According to eye-witnesses Ferrada was screaming religious things about Jesus. He also left a suicide note that mentions the apocalypse as the reason for his death wish. Well, his dramatic attempt at suicide was a colossal failure, and resulted in the loss of two innocent lives. The reactions to the incident have been strong from calling the boycott of zoos to questioning the use of deadly force. Dozens of people held a night vigil on Saturday night for the two dead lions.
You can hear the full report in this video: