So the news in Pittsburgh is reporting that the African Painted Dog exhibit at the zoo will be permanently closed, and the animals relocated to other zoos. This is in response to an incident that occurred there in 2012 where a boy fell into the enclosure.
Tragedies happen all the time and it does not necessarily mean that something has to be done in response to those incidents, unless that response is to make them less likely to happen again. It was an innocent act that started the chain of events that lead to the incident, and certainly this was not the intended outcome, but removing the animals and denying other visitors to the zoo the chance to view those animals is not necessarily the correct response.
The Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Florida is one of the top bridges that people use to commit suicide, yet the bridge remains open. It is a vital link for travelers that use the bridge for its intended purpose; to get to point "A" from point "B" in a timely, efficient fashion. Certainly closing the bridge would prevent people from using it to commit suicide, and thus solve that problem, but at the expense of all others that use the bridge every day.
You can't sanitize the world and make it safe from one's self; it's just not possible. In the case of the zoo, there are still other animals there that are quite capable of inflicting serious bodily harm and/or death, and removing all of the "deadly" animals from the zoo is not the answer. If investigation of incidents leads to safety improvements, then those improvements should be made, but closing an exhibit is not the answer. If we continue along the path that closes or removes a potential danger, we'll end up with nothing. Case in point, people are injured or killed every year when floor jacks fail and allow cars to fall on them. There are warnings on the jacks stating that before you work under a raised car, it should be supported by jack-stands or some other means to secure the vehicle, the jack is not enough, yet people still get injured as they ignore those warnings.
There are those that will feel they did "something", and maybe pat themselves on the backs for doing so. However going back to the bridge, you can close and dismantle it, and then certainly say you are preventing suicides. True, no one will commit suicide on the dismantled bridge any longer, however suicide will continue, as nothing was done to correct the root problem.
