The Malay Mail 27/12/2007 (Thursday) By Darshini Kandasamy
(L-R: Tony Pua, Sankara N.Nair, Yours Truly, Haw Kim Chuan holding Qian Tong and Koh Ming Choo)
“THE zoo is lying.” So claimed Haw Kim Chuan, the father of five-year-old Qian Tong, who was allegedly at- tacked by a leopard at Zoo Negara on Saturday.
He was livid upon reading newspaper reports which quoted Zoo Negara director Dr Mohamad Ngah as saying that the
girl did not sustain her injuries due to the leopard clawing her.
Dr Mohamad was quoted as saying that her injuries were due to her falling upon seeing the leopard lunging at her when she was attempting to scale the leopard enclosure. Haw, however, refuted the statement .
“How can he make such statements without proof? He wasn’t even there when it happened.
“If she had really fallen, my daughter would have had ab- rasions on her hands or knees. No one sustains scratches on the neck and mouth from fall- ing down,” said the factory machine operator.
He claimed that since the incident, no one from the zoo had called them to verify what had transpired. Haw also claimed that the animal which attacked his daughter wasn’t a spotted leo- pard but a puma.
“I was shocked to read in the papers that it was a leopard. On that day, we hadn’t even reached the leopard enclosure yet,” he claimed.
He also dismissed Dr Mohamad’s statement that there were enough warning signs and a buffer zone at the animal enclosure.
“The puma enclosure had an entrance. There was no buffer zone there. That was where my daughter was almost mauled,” he claimed.
(Wrong cat: I’m the real culprit!)
Haw alleged that in the incident, his daughter had her back towards the enclosure. The animal reached out with its paw and pulled her towards the fence.
The animal, he claimed, only let go after seeing him rush towards it.
The family claimed that Qian Thong sustained scratches on her back, neck and inner lip, which required more than 10 stitches, in the attack.
The girl’s mother, Koh Ming Choo, 28, claimed that the scars are now more than skin deep. Her daughter, she claimed, has refused to return to the zoo and is afraid at night.
“We have also been humi- liated to the point where we do n ’t even feel like leaving the house anymore. Many people, even my own parents, have pointed fingers at us, saying hurtful things like we don’t know how to look after our own child,” the housewife said.
They were speaking at a Press conference organised by Seputeh MP Teresa Kok. At the meeting, Kok and DAP Seputeh legal consultant Sankara N. Nair had claimed that the animal ‘mix-up’ was planned by zoo authorities to mislead the public and shift the blame to the parents.
This, however, was refuted by Dr Mohamad who claimed that this was the first time he had heard of any mention of the animal being a puma.
The staff report had listed the animal as being a leopard.
He said there will be an investigation but theorised that the confusion could have been due to the language barrier.
When the incident occurred, he said, the mother had taken the child to the front office.
The conversation with the staff was in Mandarin.
“According to the customer service representative who spoke with the mother, the mother used the Chinese word for ‘leopard ’ when describing the attack. That was what was stated in the report.”
He felt it was unlikely that the puma was the one which attacked Qian Thong as it is usually the leopard which was more likely to approach hu- ma ns. “Pumas are usually reserved,” he said.
He also stressed that both enclosures were similar and had buffer zones.
The puma enclosure, however, had a ser- vice gate which had potted plants in front of it.
Qian Thong’s parents had claimed that on the day of the incident, the barrier and potted plants weren’t there. Dr Mohamad also denied saying that the child’s injuries were the result of a fall. He said he was “misquoted”.
“I told a daily that the child had crossed the barrier and by the father’s own admission, he said he had rushed to the fence to save her, which means that he, too, had crossed the barrier.
“The newspaper could have heard me wrong and reported the wrong thing.” He said in light of the latest information, the zoo would be in touch with the family to clarify matters.
To reinforce safety, Dr Mohamad said they have re-checked the enclosures and plan to increase staff strength from 26 to 50.
He said he was “very sorry” that the incident occurred during the change of shifts.
“That is why it is hard to determine the truth. There was no other eyewitness to the at- tack and none of my staff were around at the time. At other times, the enclosures are al- ways supervised.”
He said he was advised by his insurance agents that the zoo was not liable to pay any compensation to the family as the family had trespassed into the buffer zone, and so did not fall under their public liability coverage.