Zoo pleads guilty to safety breach over tapir attack

Dublin Zoo has pleaded guilty to breaching health and safety regulations after a two-year-old girl was mauled by a "chilled-out" Brazilian tapir which suddenly went on the attack.

The toddler was set on by the 225kg exotic animal named Rio during a supervised “close encounter” experience in the tapir enclosure on August 8 last year.

The Zoological Society of Ireland, which was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Authority, admitted a breakdown in communication was to blame for a 2006 risk assessment not being heeded. It had stated that the public should only be allowed to get close to harmless animals such as stick insects, rabbits, or frogs.