Crowds linger since ordeal

Press, 3 April 1989, Page 10

Crowds linger since ordeal

NZPA-PA London The zoo where a toddler’s arm was ripped off by a chimpanzee was unrepentant yesterday as sightseers turned out to see the animal.

Bustah, a 28-year-old male, became excited by the attention of sightseers who stayed longer than normal and press photographers determined to get an action shot.

But officials at Port Lympne Zoo Park, Ashford, Kent, owned by a millionaire gambler, Mr John Aspinall, said it was not their fault that Matthew McDaid, aged two, strayed too near the cage.

A spokesperson, Ms SUe Duff said, “If you get people going over barriers and ignoring signs which clearly warn that the animals are dangerous then there is not a lot more you can do. “The warning signs are big enough and if parents

can’t control children enough to keep them from away from the animals then it is not our fault.” She said the zoo was to install gates instead of barriers beside the cages in the wake of Friday’s incident but said safety was always under review anyway. Matthew was yesterday described as “satisfactory” at Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead, Sussex, where he was taken after surgeons at a micro-surgery unit were unable to sew the severed left arm back on after it had been mauled by the animal. The incident occurred when Matthew ran away from his family and dived under a chain around the cage.

As he put his left arm through the bars, Bustah, the chimpanzees’ leader, grabbed it with such force that it was torn off at the elbow.