BackJuma the jaguar becomes a tragic casualty of the Olympics
A jaguar is shot dead after an Olympic torch-bearing ceremony in Brazil, even as a smiling cartoon version of the feline is the country's team mascot
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On Monday, less than a month after a gorilla was killed in the Cincinnati zoo because a child had slipped into its enclosure, an Amazonian jaguar was killed after the Olympic torch-bearing ceremony in Brazil.
While news reports are surfacing now, there has been no media stir, or social media ire like there was with the Cincinnati zoo incident. The 17-year-old female jaguar Juma was raised in a military-run zoo in Manaus and was part of the ceremonial Olympic torch-bearing procession.
The jaguar, which is the symbol of the Amazon, derives its name from the Native American yaguar, meaning ‘he who kills with one leap’. Juma, along with another jaguar, were chained and exhibited throughout the ceremony. The jaguar become restless when she was forced to pose for multiple-angle shots with a man holding the torch, managing to unshackle herself.
Once free, Juma was shot with four tranquilizer darts but despite that, she attacked a soldier. To save him and the rest of the rescue team, she was killed with a single gunshot.
“Wild animals held captive and forced to do things that are frightening, sometimes painful, and always unnatural are ticking time bombs," says Brittany Peet, director of captive animal law enforcement at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).
As per the Amazonas state government environmental authority, Juma’s participation in the event was illegal, Reuters reported. “No request was made to authorize the participation of the jaguar ‘Juma’ in the event of the Olympic torch."
The jaguar is a near-extinct species. Only 15,000 of them are left on earth.
“We made a mistake in permitting the Olympic torch, a symbol of peace and unity, to be exhibited alongside a chained wild animal. This image goes against our beliefs and our values," the Olympic committee’s statement post the incident read.
It is little consolation for yet another meaningless and brutal killing.
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