A video of one young boy has gone viral after his father shared a video of the young child being lunged at by a fully grown tiger while on a day out at the zoo.
The video was captured at Dublin Zoo.
Young Sean was on a trip to Dublin Zoo with his father Rob when he was posing for a picture in front of the glass at a tiger enclosure.
However, the tiger was far from friendly.
In the video, the tiger begins to approach slowly as Sean has his back turned, posing for a photograph.
The tiger, seeing the boy, begins to hunt him, as it lowers its center of gravity and prowls carefully closer.
The tiger quickly demonstrates its keen hunting abilities.
It is no secret that tigers are spectacular hunters, and that becomes more evident as the video goes on.
Young Sean momentarily turns around to look at the tiger as it creeps closer to him, and in that instant, noticing that the boy has spotted it, the tiger freezes.
When Sean turns back to face his father, the tiger launches forward.
Noticing that little Sean has turned back away from it, the tiger charges forward like a… well, like a tiger chasing its food!
All the while, Sean’s father Rob can be heard saying, “Stay Sean,” as he baits the tiger forward before it ultimately crashes into the glass.
The tiger launches into the glass causing Sean to jump out of his skin.
The tiger collides with the glass with immense force, hitting its head against the glass. Once Sean dives out of the way, the tiger continues to claw at the glass, still trying to get at its lunchtime snack.
In the background of the video, people can be heard screaming, and Sean’s dad laughs loudly as the video comes to a close.
Rob wrote alongside the video: “My son was on the menu in Dublin Zoo today”.
Rob also explained that Sean “reacted pretty calm” to the attempted tiger attack, and went on to say that his other son “ran like the clappers”, in an interview with Storyful .
For those not familiar with the term, “ran like the clappers” is an English idiom which means to run very fast. And, in this instance, I think running away like the clappers is a very valid response!
There were a lot of parents joining in with Rob’s laughter at his son’s tiger confrontation.
Replying to Rob’s video tweet some people shared their reactions as such:
“That’s grrrrrrrreatttt!”
“Love the way it was stalking him and when he turned around it stopped. That tiger meant business”
“You had me and the Mrs. in stitches mate. Proper parenting. Cracking up at the expense of your kids. Love it! Have a great Christmas!”
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However, there were far more people concerned by the video.
There were hundreds of people claiming that the video was a poor example of parenting. However, the largest portion of responses came from people condemning the video as being cruel to the tiger.
“I’m not usually an ‘Animal rights’ type but this vid made me feel uneasy. Goading a captive Tiger for our amusement isn’t a good look.”
“This is terrible both for the tiger & the kid. People have been hurt walking into panes of glass at Apple’s Steve Jobs building so I’m sure the tiger could’ve seriously hurt himself. The kid is lucky the glass held up. Shame on the parents for not pulling him aside or warning him”
“This Tiger is obviously agitated & should be managed more carefully.”
The video has proven to be quite decisive.
In a society which is becoming much more politically aware of humanity’s relationship with nature, it is no surprise that a video with content such as this would cause arguments across social media.
How did this video make you feel, and did it change your opinion on zoos as so many people claimed that it did for them?
h/t: New York Post
