Panther

This was reported by Nan Yang Siang Pau yesterday:

“A 6 feet Black Panther was found in the toilet of a sawmill at 8am, Tuesday morning. The owner contacted Selangor Wildlife Department immediately. The other villagers soon got wind of it and flocked to the sawmill to catch a glimpse of the Panther. Some even climbed on the roof of the sawmill to catch a glimpse of the Panther. Not long after that, two personnel from the Wildlife Department arrived and told the villagers that the Black Panther was a protected animal and that they intended to catch it alive. Unfortunately, they did not bring the necessary equipment to do so.

Therefore, all they could do now is to wait for their counterpart from headquarter. Meanwhile, the Panther seems to be disturbed by the noisy crowd and tried to escape by jumping on the roof but fail. Finally, it managed to break itself free from the sawmill by jumping over a wall (which is 2 feet tall) and a man who was squatting near the wall, waiting to see the Black Panther. The man was scratched by the Black Panther. The Black Panther was again trapped in a compartment outside of the sawmill because of the fence but it did not show any hostility to the villagers. In seeing this, the officers from the wildlife Department shot the Black Panther in its head and killed it on the spot.”

In my point of view, the officers of the Wildlife Department had caused the death of the Black Panther. They did not take the necessary precaution to protect the Black Panther.

They panicked when a man was accidentally injured by the Panther. They killed the Panther because this would make their job easier. Moreover, they had to wait for at least 2 hours for their other colleague to arrive and they were also scared. Frankly from the newspaper report, I think that the Panther did not deserve to die at all. It did not show any hostility to anyone while it was there. The Panther did not attack the owner when he find it in his sawmill’s toilet nor the other villagers.

However, what about that villager who was scratched by the Panther? Well, that was his fault for putting himself in such a risk. Any 3 years old can tell you that staying too close to a Black Panther can be dangerous. Nevertheless, the officers were also at fault. They were suppose to disperse off the crowd and lock down the area, to protect the people and the Panther.

In contrast, all they did was to “stand guard” and wait for right moment to kill the panther!