Zoo pleads guilty to safety breach over tapir 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.
