A mother who dropped her young child into the enclosure of a brown bear in a zoo in Uzbekistan is now facing a charge of attempted murder.
If the woman, 30, who is said to be suffering from depression, is found guilty, she is looking at 15 years of jail time.
The incident occurred in a zoo in the country’s capital, Tashkent, on Friday (Jan 28).
Onlookers watched helplessly and even tried to stop the woman as she dropped her 3-year-old daughter.
The child fell around 16 feet (5 meters) into a trench inside the bear pit.
In a moment caught on camera, the bear, a male named Zuzu, came over and sniffed at the little girl, and then went away. Zoo officials then kept Zuzu in an enclosed part of his pit.
The video may be viewed here.
In the meantime, six employees of the zoo entered the pit to rescue the child.
On camera, one man can be seen picking her up in his arms and then carrying her away.
She was brought to the hospital and treated for a concussion, some cuts, and an open wound on her head.
A spokeswoman for the zoo has been quoted in the Daily Mail as saying, “A young woman threw a little girl down into a brown bear’s enclosure, in front of all the visitors. Both the visitors and the staff of the zoo were trying to stop her – but failed.
Zuzu, a male Caucasian Brown Bear, was watching the woman, who threw the little one over a metal fence. She fell into a trench under the fence.
Zuzu got slowly stood up, slowly got down the trench, walked towards the girl, sniffed her – and walked back.”
A spokesman commented on the little girl’s condition: “Currently her state is normal, but she remains under constant observation” adding that there is “not a single trace of wounds from the bear’s fangs or claws.’
Later reports say that the woman had been suffering from depression after her husband, like many other Uzbek men, left her to work in Russia as a way out of poverty.
There are about two million labour migrants from Uzbekistan in Russia.
The woman, 30, is a lecturer in a university and lives with her two children and her elderly father.
The Uzbek health ministry said, “The woman has been depressed as her husband left for Russia and no longer lives with her.”
Zoo officials have been quoted as saying, “It’s scary to even think what could have happened if the bear had reacted to the child as a predator to a prey.” /TISG
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