Bears Kill Zoo Worker in Front of Tourists

Tourists visiting an animal park in Shanghai on Saturday saw the unimaginable unfold before their eyes: Bears attacked and killed a staffer, reports the BBC. Few details are known about the incident at the Shanghai Wildlife Park, including the identity of the victim, the type of bears involved, or what might have set them off. It happened near a tourist bus in the "wild beast area" of the park, and the BBC says video posted on China's Weibo social media network shows several bears at the site of the mauling as tourists yell from the bus. The park says it is "extremely distressed" at the fatality and promises to put better safeguards in place. But that wasn't enough for critics.

"How many more people have to be hurt or killed by wild animals kept in confinement before we accept that these animals do not belong in captivity?” says the animal rights group PETA in a statement to the Washington Post. The newspaper notes that the zoo has been the subject of other controversies in recent years, including when a handler was filmed slapping the face of a tiger cub to make it pose for tourist photos. A few years ago, the South China Morning Post included the animal park in a story about "China's terrible zoos." (More zoo stories.)