A woman has been banned from the Memphis Zoo for trying to climb into a lion enclosure and feed them cookies.
“Last week she was noticed by our security staff throwing objects into the lion exhibit; at that time she was asked to leave the zoo,” said Memphis Zoo spokesperson Abbey Dane. She then came back a second time and tried to climb the barrier. On both occasions, witnesses said she was singing to the lions and trying to feed them cookies. Visitors called the zoo’s hotline to report her and that’s when security intervened.
Her identity is not known, but witnesses described her as wearing brown scrubs. After the second attempt, the Memphis Zoo banned her from the property, handing out a photo of her to employees to be on the lookout for her. The zoo then posted a message to the community sort of (but not really) addressing the incident by reminding everyone that cookies are for people.
There are a lot of jokes people are making about this woman right now but the whole thing just strikes me as very sad. I don’t make drive-by mental health diagnoses, but at the very least she probably needs to sit down and talk with someone about why she would do such a dangerous thing.
Image via Shutterstock.