After Mom had allegedly held him over the railing and dropped him. Charges expected:

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN0N301N20150412?irpc=932

None of the cats approached him!

What a genius!

I can only hope this story & soon to be charges go viral scaring future parents from having a similar brain fart.

I also hope the charges remain a summary & small fine.

Unless it is determined the mother intentionally dropped the tot, which is not beyond the realm of possibility.

Good thing they fed the cheetahs earlier that day!!! HAHA

In all seriousness I'm glad the kid is okay. My guess is the mom is not in the running for the 2015 mother of the year award

If I were the powers that be I would be calling into question her ability to care for her child or children for the future.

It's getting national attention from many major news sources (Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, Huffington Post, etc.), so hopefully other parents will think twice before doing stupid things like this. I'm glad to see the zoo taking such a serious stance on this.

This is at least the second such incident in recent memory. Another was, if memory serves, in Pennsylvania.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://tstofriends.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Spucklers.jpg&imgrefurl=http://tstofriends.com/tag/how-to-unlock-spuckler-brood-on-simpsons-tapped-out/&h=778&w=990&tbnid=ADbZzidjhUp60M:&zoom=1&q=the+spucklers+from+the+simpsons&docid=fxthEK0bk3khaM&ei=RCIrVaxsw9WgBOLQgeAI&tbm=isch&client=ms-android-verizon&ved=0CEUQMygeMB4

Fixing for you...

Turns out the Mother is an Assistant Director at a child care facility. She is currently on a Leave of Absence.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3037711/Mother-charged-child-endangerment-dropping-son-cheetah-pit-CHILDCARE-WORKER.html

Can't trust her with her own kid I wouldn't trust her to be within a mile of mine.

As awful as it sounds, I still say there is a possibility this was not an accident.

My thoughts on that is if this is an accident then why did the parent jump in the save the kid. If it wasn't an accident I would think they would just stand to the side and scream in horror.

This was a shocking story just hard to pondeR what was going on with the Mom.

None of the cats approached him!

Often times, of the big cats, the Cheetahs tend to be more "docile" (term used loosely as they can have an attitude) compared to lions or tigers. Now if you go around a cheetah (or a lion, or a tiger or even a bobcat or a serval) just making a bunch of high pitched noises then well....good luck as high pitched noises to them is a distress call at times. Go to Lunch?

Faerie wench, who has witnessed bobcats and servals go into predatory mode just by hearing a crying human baby on the television before

People make mistakes.

As of right now, given her & the father's reaction of immediately jumping into the enclosure, there is no reason to believe this is anything but an innocent (and INCREDIBLY stupid) mistake.

We have all made boneheaded decisions at some point, especially dealing with kids. Difference being our mistake(s) typically don't make national headlines.

That is an inexcusable mistake.

I remember a couple years ago after another incident of a child ending up in a zoo enclosure, that someone (who works in a zoo) mentioned on another message board I frequent that it is not uncommon for parents to lift small children up onto the tops of protective barriers to sit or stand so they can "see the animals".

It's a real problem for zoos: to figure out ways to keep people and animals safe; and let patrons see the animals they came to see; and save people from their own stupidity. For the final part, it often takes more than one "layer" of barriers between people and animals.

Obvious solution: Make the protective barrier transparent, so that small children don't need to see over the barrier. Lexan bulletproof plastic would be perfect.

Am I missing something here?

The wide variety of human stupidity, I think

Yeah, it was transparent barriers the parents lifted their children to the tops of. If you don't have bare eyes on the animals it's like watching them on TV I guess.

That is an inexcusable mistake.

No it's not.

Dumb? Certainly.

Inexcuseable? Other than dropping the child with malicious intent, it is a dumb mistake.

Let it be a learning experience for others.

"Inexcusable" suggests the mother should lose her rights as a parent and at this point the punishment does not fit the crime.

If you're dumb enough to lift your child over a railing and dangle them over an enclosure with animals that could very easily kill the kid if the fall doesn't that shows such a severe lack of common sense that I don't think she deserves her kid(s). That person is completely F'en stupid.

I'm not perfect but I'm obviously not dumb enough to make a mistake to that level.

Did she "dangle" the child over the enclosure (like Michael Jackson did many years ago at a hotel) or did she lift the child above a railing and lost control?

There is a significant difference between the two. One being malicious, the other- not so much.

http://www.times-standard.com//opinion/20130804/lets-face-it-common-sense-is-not-a-common-thing

And thus why an investigation...

Obvious solution: Make the protective barrier transparent, so that small children don't need to see over the barrier. Lexan bulletproof plastic would be perfect.

Am I missing something here?

No you're not. That's sort of what the Cincinnati Zoo has done with their Cat Canyon exhibit:

(Image from the Cat Canyon blog: http://blog.cincinnatizoo.org/2014/08/01/a-roaring-success/kids-with-tiger-crissi-lanier/)

More info on the exhibit: http://cincinnatizoo.org/plan-your-visit/exhibits/cat-canyon/

So were those shirts planned for a pic in this discussion?

Incredibly ironic!

Obvious solution: Make the protective barrier transparent, so that small children don't need to see over the barrier. Lexan bulletproof plastic would be perfect.Am I missing something here?

That's basically what the Indianapolis zoo uses on a lot of their exhibits. Siegfried & Roy Secret Garden has literally multiple barriers when viewing the big cats including really tall fencing. Only thing you have to worry about at the Secret Garden is when one of the cats decide they want to claim you as their property... so you run away when a tail is raised your direction as they got good aim right through the fences.