A tiger that attacked a keeper and escaped from a private enclosure has been shot d£ad by German police.
The tiger, believed to belong to well-known trainer Carmen Zander, injured a 72-year-old man and escaped its enclosure on the outskirts of the German city of Leipzig on Sunday, May 17.
Ms Zander – dubbed Germany’s “Tiger Queen” – reportedly owns a group of big cats kept at an industrial estate in Dolzig, where she settled after performing with her animals in shows across Europe, according to Bild.
The tiger – an adult male – was on the loose for less than 30 minutes before being shot d£ad by police in a nearby garden on Sunday afternoon, Bild reports.
The injured man was taken to hospital for treatment, though the extent of his injuries is not yet known.
Ms Zander, 52, who was the subject of the 2015 documentary Wild Women: Gentle Beasts, was seen crying on the roof of her car “visibly shocked” after her pet’s de@th, according to Bild. No other animals escaped.
The incident has sparked outrage in the local community and renewed debate over the ethics of keeping dangerous wild animals as pets.
Residents told the DPA news agency that the incident was “terrible and worrying”, with one witness claiming the animals were kept in “far too cramped conditions”.
Ms Zander has denied any mistreatment of her big cats.
Ms Zander and one of her tigers
Dolzig mayor Thomas Druskat condemned the incident, calling for the animals to be moved, Leipziger Volkszeitung reports.
“The enclosure has to go,” he said, adding it was “unthinkable what might have happened if other people had been injured”.
Animal rights charity PETA told DPA that stricter regulations are needed to protect privately-owned animals. Last year, the charity had unsuccessfully sued Ms Zander to have the big cats removed from the enclosure.
A PETA spokesperson said at the time: “The tigers are confined in the smallest possible space in their home territory, in barren wire cages and deprived of everything that would constitute a species-appropriate tiger life.”