The story says, "Panda bites student who wanted hug."
It seems that some Chinese college student went over the fence and into the Panda pen to hug the Panda. The student seemed surprised the Panda attacked him, since he only wanted to cuddle the Panda.
China must have their own version of liberal college professors who teach huggy-feely stuff. However, as Soap Box Ravings remembers, zoos are places were people put wild animals so they can look at them. They are not there to hug, unless the sign says "Petting Zoo" and I have seen animals in "Petting Zoos" knock little kids on their a**. When a docile cow swings it's head, perhaps to see what is happening elsewhere, a 2-3 year old can get hurt very easily.
Wild animals are wild whether they are in the wild or in the zoo. Soap Box Ravings and his Blushing Bride visited Icy Strait, Alaska a couple years ago on a cruise. In Icy Strait we signed up to go inland and see the bears. A native Inuit was our guide on the bus, he regaled us with stories until we arrived at our destination.
The actual tour was a walk from point A to point B. While our bus driving guide led our walk through the woods and fields looking for bears another Inuit moved the bus to our pickup point.
As we formed up and started to follow our guide, a third Inuit fell in at the back of the tourist group. While we were looking for bears, he was with us in case we actually saw a bear or bears. He was carrying a .338 Winchester Magnum Ruger Model 77 rifle slung over his shoulder. Everybody in Icy Strait, Alaska knows what happens when you met an Alaskan bear in the woods.
And yes, we had two bears pass us at a distance of about 40 yards. We saw them cross the stream about 100 yards to our left, go down the opposite bank of the stream to within about 40 yards and then they continued another 200 yards before crossing back onto our side of the stream.
The female bear was moving and the male bear was only interested in her. The rifle remained slung. None of the Inuits with us had any interest in killing a bear unless it was absolutely necessary to protect a human.
