A Chinese man suffering from depression shocked visitors at a zoo when he attempted to feed himself to a pair of Bengal tigers.
Yang Jinhai, 27, climbed over the wall of the Chengdu Zoo in Sichuan province to enter into tigers enclosure on Sunday as he wanted to improve the lives of caged cats by offering them himself to eat.
Yang persisted and tried to antagonise the tigers by shouting and pulling faces at them before one eventually pounced and mauled him, local media reported.
The witness said, “Eventually he was attacked by the male where he was scratched and bitten before he was rescued by the zoo keepers who fired a tranquiliser dart at the male tiger.”
Yang wrote online how he found it depressing to see the “noble and magnificent tigers” living in such humble surroundings, where they were caged and unable to follow their natural instincts to hunt and kill.
He then announced that he had decided to sacrifice himself in order to provide the Bengal tigers with support.
Zoo keepers said Yang had been extremely lucky to survive the ordeal. The white Bengal tigers were described as more docile because they have been bred from captivity, and had also only just finished a large meal and were not hungry at the time of the incident.
Yang’s family told local media Yang had been depressed for a long time over a series of jobs he had briefly held down because they did not satisfy him.
He is now receiving counselling, local media reported.
