If a predatory animal attacks a harmless human, do we root for the animal or the human? Not everyone holds that answer to be self-evident, as witnessed in the discourse around last weekend’s tragedy at Yorkshire Wildlife Park.

Details remain scarce about the delusional young man who vaulted into the enclosure with a Siberian tiger and was swiftly mauled to death. Whoever he was, the internet has declared the gene pool well rid of him. 

By all accounts, the horrific scene unfolded too fast for park rangers on site to make a life-saving intervention. In the haze of early reports, some people (including me) mistakenly thought there may have been an opportunity missed to intervene with a real gun. But it soon became clear that, as far as the internet was concerned, all this was beside the point. The beautiful tiger was more valuable than the stupid man, and RIP the X mentions of anyone, like me, who dared to suggest otherwise.

The savage glee this young man’s death has kindled is worthy of the gladiatorial games

The savage glee this young man’s death has kindled is worthy of the gladiatorial games

When evolutionary biologist Colin Wright took a poll of reactions to the........

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