Those endangering safety at zoos must be punished

A tourist broke into the white tiger enclosure at the Beijing Wildlife Park in Daxing district on Saturday afternoon, but escaped unscathed thanks to the timely action of rescue officials and the safeguards in place to protect anyone who breaks into the enclosure.

Visitors have broken into no-go areas in wildlife parks on several occasions in the recent past, breaking the rules, and exposing themselves and those who come to their rescue to danger.

Every time this happens, the media highlight the risks of such an action.

Despite that, a few visitors learn no lesson. Which underlines the need for setting in place a mechanism to ensure tourists don”t cross their limits.

Zoos should ensure that signboards reminding visitors of the dangers of behaving irresponsibly are prominently displayed.

At the same time, “physical defenses”, meant to act as a barrier between the visitors and the animals, should be set up.

Reports said the reason why the visitor in Daxing did not end up becoming the tigers’ meal is because there were multiple protection devices inside the enclosure, including a concealed one that played a key role.

Zoos also needs to strengthen their monitoring, inspection and the rapid response systems so that in case of an emergency, zoo staff are immediately alerted and take suitable action.

This would minimize the risks of accidents.

At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen the mechanism for taking disciplinary action against visitors who violate the rules.

Visitors must pledge when they buy tickets that they will obey the rules and not venture into prohibited areas or indulge in risky behavior inside the park.

These should be treated like a safety management contract that the visitors, after entering wildlife parks, will not get out of their cars without authorization or enter dangerous areas and get too close to the wild animals.

Also, the parks should immediately report any breach of contract to the authorities, so that the latter can then put the rule breakers on the “tourism blacklist”, and penalize them for their actions.