NEW YORK – A crazed big-cat lover was thwarted by protective netting just as he tried to jump into the Bronx Zoo’s snow-leopard exhibit, police said Saturday.
The feline fanatic was prowling around the snow-leopard and red-panda enclosures when he decided to make a wild leap for the exotic cats just a bit after 7:30 p.m. Friday, law-enforcement sources stated to The New York Post.
Zookeepers and a police officer assigned to the zoo acted as fast as they could when the man cleared the first barrier that separates visitors from the cats.
They grabbed him just before he got past the protective netting into the leopards’ enclosure, sources revealed.
The unidentified man entered the park with a zoo season pass.
Zoo staffers seized and also revoked the pass and ejected him from the park.
The fool was not arrested.
The Bronx Zoo declined to comment on Saturday.
Shy, elusive snow leopards are indeed an endangered species with only 4,000 to 6,000 alive in the wild.
