Two Animals Shot Dead After Escaping From Their Enclosure At Zoo

Zoo officials in the Netherlands have been forced to shoot dead two animals after they escaped from their enclosure.

Two chimpanzees named Mike and Karibuna jumped out of their confines at DierenPark Amersfoort, however didn't get too far before they were confronted by zookeepers.

The zoo has released a statement, explaining how sorry they are that the animals had to be killed.

"The situation was under control quickly and no visitors or employees were injured," the statement (translated from Dutch) said. "To prevent further escalation, these two male chimps were shot dead. We deeply regret this event.

"The first conclusions are that we are dealing with a human error around closing the accommodations, which made two monkeys come out of the accommodation.

"In the next few days, further investigation will be carried out on the cause. At the moment we have found that there are no technical flaws in the stay.

"The two chimpanzees were seen almost immediately after the escape by our behind the scenes animal caregivers."

The Zoo says they initiated their 'Animal Escaped' protocol which means the safety of visitors and staff are the top priority.

They added that Mike and Karibuna displayed 'impressive behaviour' and zookeepers were worried they could be dangerous to everyone at the facility.

"Therefore the decision to shoot the chimpanzees was made at that moment," DierenPark Amersfoort continued.

"It's a black day for Animal Park Amersfoort. We therefore deeply regret this situation. The two chimps, Mike and Karibuna, have been part of the chimpanzee group in our park for a long time.

"For our employees and visitors we offer victim assistance. We ask visitors who were at the moment of the event in our park to report to us, we would love to get in touch with them."

Hours later, the park revealed it was going to close due to the coronavirus causing a second wave in the Netherlands.

They described it as a 'dark day' and the park will be shut until at least November 19.

"We wish ourselves nothing more than to see our big and small visitors climb, clambering and spotting animals in our park in the middle of the forest," they said.

Topics: News, Animals

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

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