A jaguar has been shot dead shortly after it was used in an Olympic torch relay at a Zoo in the Brazilian city of Manaus, the army said. The officials added, that the female jaguar escaped its handlers, reacting to this a soldier fired a single pistol shot when the escaped animal, despite being transquilzed, approached the soldier. Organisers for the Rio Games said it had been a mistake to exhibit the Olympic torch next to a chained wild animal.
Animal rights groups have condemned the killing, with some questioning why the animal was involved in the Olympic event. “When will we learn? Wild animals held captive and forced to do things that are frightening, sometimes painful, and always unnatural are ticking time bombs,” Brittany Peet, director of captive animal law enforcement at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), said in a statement.
The animal, called Juma, had been raised in the zoo in the Amazon since it was a cub along with half-a-dozen siblings.
