A mother is being charged with attempted murder after dropping her 3-year-old daughter into a zoo's bear pit.
The mother and her child were visiting a zoo in Uzbekistan. In a shocking video, you can see the mother let go of her child, who then falls into the pit.
The child fell into a trench about 16 feet down before a bear named Zuzu walked by. Luckily, the bear only sniffed the child and otherwise left her alone.
The footage of the event is extremely unsettling. Thankfully, the zookeepers acted quickly. They were able to lure the bear to an enclosed area while they removed the child from the bear pit.
The child suffered a concussion and cuts from the 16-foot drop. It's incredible that those were her only injuries. She's expected to make a full recovery.
Her mother, however, may see harsh consequences. The woman has been detained and now faces an attempted murder charged. If convicted, she could spend 15 years behind bars.
While it could've been a horrible accident, witnesses say that wasn't the case.
“A young woman threw a little girl down into a brown bear’s enclosure, in front of all the visitors. It was completely unclear what her motive was,” a zoo spokeswoman told East2West News.
“Both the visitors and the staff of the zoo were trying to stop her but failed,” the zookeeper said. “We are scared to even think how this would end if the bear were to react at the toddler as its prey.”
She added, “Zuzu got slowly stood up, slowly got down the trench, walked towards the girl, sniffed her and walked back.”
