HANOI – A captive Asiatic black bear in Vietnam was electrocuted to death to force it to release the arm of a three-year-old boy, news reports said on Tuesday.
The boy’s grandmother said he was playing near the bear’s cage with her at their home in Hoc Mon [pro_ad_display_adzone id=”10″][pro_ad_display_adzone id=”8″]
District of Ho Chi Minh City Sunday, when the animal bit his arm and tried to pull him into the cage.
A neighbour heard the grandmother screaming and tried to pull the boy free, but one of his arms was in the animal’s mouth and still connected by a piece of skin only.
The 100-kilogramme bear had been kept in captivity for over three years, [pro_ad_display_adzone id=”10″]
However, doctors failed to re-attach the arm as it was too badly damaged.[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”10″]
The deputy head of Ho Chi Minh’s Forestry Department, Dao Dang, said that the bear was found to have been held illegally.
Report says similar attacks on children have been reported in Vietnam in recent years, highlighting the [pro_ad_display_adzone id=”10″]dangers of keeping bears in cages as pets.
It said in April 2014 a two-year-old boy lost his forearm when he was assaulted by a bear kept at his home in the northern resort town of Ha Long.
Also a five-year-old boy lost both his arms in another attack in the northern province of Phu Tho in September 2013.
According to Ho Chi Minh’s Forestry Department, it is legal to keep bears as pets in Vietnam, but only if they are microchipped and declared to authorities.
Bears are sometimes kept for bile extraction, in spite of the practice being illegal since 1992. (dpa/NAN)
- Latest
- Trending
