Outrage after television footage wrongly links animal sanctuary with events surrounding Sheba the tiger
Charmain Joubert with one of her “best friends”, Nonyx the tiger, 7, at Mystic Monkeys
Sadness and anger over the killing of Sheba the tiger trended on social media last week, but it also invoked the outrage of one of the country’s top animal sanctuaries in Dinokeng.
Television footage wrongly linked the establishment with the tragic events surrounding Sheba.
Christa Saayman, the owner of Mystic Monkeys and Feathers Wildlife Park, which also accommodates a few tigers and other predators, is extremely upset that footage of her facility was displayed during a news broadcast while she had nothing to do with Sheba.
Since her establishment was erroneously depicted, Saayman said she had been inundated with calls from people who wanted to know from her what had happened. “It’s unacceptable that my zoo’s pictures were shown during the entire broadcast. This gives my establishment a bad name. People keep on phoning to ask whether it’s my tiger,” she told the Pretoria News.
Saayman said she expected a correction. “They (the media) were on the premises where the tiger had escaped. Why did they not use that footage? I gave no one permission to broadcast footage of my place.”
“They should have just waited patiently, and they should have put food out for her.
“She would have returned because the predator always returns to where it has been raised and kept.” Joubert said if one was searching for an escaped predator, one must be sure to take the experts along – “first, the best trackers, and then ensure that a vet is on the team so the tiger can be darted”.
“They say in the media that they had no option but to euthanize her, but that is totally wrong to me.
“They made it clear that this was because there was no vet with them
“It’s so unfair towards an animal that had no say in the matter,” Joubert said.
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