Teen mauled to death by tiger while helping influencer in boneheaded TikTok stunt
A teenager who was helping an influencer chronicle his exploits with big cats was mauled to death by a tiger on a private breeding farm in Pakistan last week, police said.The victim, identified only as Talha, was an employee at the farm in Lahore, and had been assisting Noman Hassan in a video shoot on Wednesday, according to The Times of India.Hassan, who has millions of followers across TikTok and Instagram, where he posts clips of himself engaging in rough play with the dangerous animals, allegedly asked Talha to take the female animal out of its enclosure when it mauled the 19-year-old, a criminal complaint reportedly said.The influencer took Talha to a hospital, where he tried to convince doctors that the teen had actually been the victim of a dog attack, police said.There had been some confusion as to whether the animal involved was a tiger or a lion.Lahore Police referred to the incident as a “lioness attack” on X, but included a photo of a tiger.Hassan and the owner of the farm, identified as Fayyaz, were arrested in connection with the fatal mauling, the outlet reported.“A passion for TikTok cannot be more important than a human life,” a spokesperson for the Lahore police reportedly said.“No one can be allowed to put human life at risk in the name of a hobby or entertainment.
The attempt to hide the facts and every aspect of negligence will be investigated.”Owning lions, cheetahs, tigers, pumas and jaguars is legal in Pakistan so long as the animals are registered and kept outside city limits, according to the report.Police were investigating whether safety protocols and legal requirements had been followed by the private farm, and authorities had been cracking down on people keeping lions and tigers as pets after an escaped lion attacked a mother and her two children in the streets of Lahore, last year.The deadly incident came a month after a former child actor was killed by a tiger at a British wildlife park when he climbed into the animal’...