Family pleads for killer tiger’s life

– A white tiger attacked and killed a zookeeper in its enclosure in southern Japan but the animal will be kept alive at the request of the victim’s family, officials said yesterday.

“A zookeeper was found collapsed in a cage, bleeding,” a local police official said, adding the man was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The attack happened late on Monday at the Hirakawa Zoological Park in the southern city of Kagoshima.

Akira Furusho, 40, was discovered bleeding from the neck and officials believe he was mauled by one of the zoo’s four rare white tigers.

The zoo said the five-yearold male tiger, named Riku, was sedated with a tranquiliser gun after the attack, as rescue workers and police rushed to the scene.

“We plan not to kill Riku and continue to keep it because the bereaved family asked us to do so," said zoo official Takuro Nagasako.

While the zoo was open as normal yesterday, the white tiger observation zone was restricted “as police continued to investigate the case”. –