My first thought as I sit down to write to you all about the dreadful incident that took place over the weekend at Yorkshire Wildlife Park is one of deepest sympathy for the family of the man who lost his life inside the tiger enclosure. Their pain and anguish in grief, given the circumstances of this man’s death, must be overwhelming. With sincerity, I offer his family and friends my deepest condolences.
Published 13th Oct 2026, 12:44 BST
Equally difficult to comprehend is the trauma left inside the park staff who tried in vain to save the man’s life. I know from first-hand experience that the staff at YWP are incredible. Very few of them apply to work there for the money. The animals, and taking care of them, is the appeal. Animal lovers. People who are passionate about nature and conservation, who want to learn from Yorkshire’s majestic, precious menagerie in order to help concerted efforts to maintain life for animals like those in their care where they belong - in the wild. We know that the staff have quite rightly been offered, and given, specialist support and counsel as they try to process the death of a human being at the hands of an animal in their care. I only hope that as well as the compassion of colleagues at the park, these people are surrounded by loved ones who can help them to process, make sense of and live with that which nobody should have to witness.
Now, whilst I don’t doubt that for the aforementioned, Benjamin Franklin’s adage that ‘out of adversity comes opportunity’ will be scant, if any, consolation at this juncture, for it is too soon. However, I find myself, just a few days later, wondering if that might be the case at all.
In order to convey to you properly what I mean, the bleakness of what I’m feeling, here is some context. It was actually my 12-year-old son who broke the news to me. ‘Dad, I’ve just had a BBC news alert; someone has been attacked by a tiger,’ Harry said. ‘Crikey,’ I said. ‘Though that does happen more than you might think, mate,’ I said. ‘Yeah. But not at Yorkshire Wildlife Park, dad!’
‘Holy ****!’ I quickly used all of the tools available to me in order to establish what had happened. ‘Oh, no. There are videos circulating of the attack.’ NB: remember, this was before we knew a man had died, and, whilst it isn’t always easy, we journalists must look at and interpret for you things that when I leave this game I shall never look at again. I looked across at the sofa where my wife was watching the video. I could see she had welled up, and tears were coming. ‘Don’t you watch it’, I said. ‘You don’t need to watch it,’ (it goes without saying the children were not allowed to watch it). ‘He’s signing Makaton. He’s signing ‘naughty’ to the tiger,’ Christa said. She is a primary school teacher of 20 years with specialist knowledge, training and skills for dealing with children with specialist needs. ‘If he knows Makaton, and he thinks the tiger knows Makaton, I think he will be a vulnerable man. Possibly with a child’s mind,’ she said through the tears.
It was later widely reported that this was the case. He had indeed been signing using Makaton. Christa was right, as she so often is.
So, on the face of it, at this stage - and this is merely where I am at, by the way, in my head. This is not material fact, as those remain scant. This is me, as a normal person coming to a contextualised conclusion; summarising to myself the sum of the parts of this terrible event and, for now, concluding that until I know otherwise I have deduced from that which I saw in the video, plus the eye-witness accounts of the poor man’s behaviour prior to his coming to be in the tiger enclosure and from my wife having spotted his grasp of a sign-language that was designed to help children who struggle to express themselves when trying to communicate, that this man may not see the world necessarily as I do. As you do.
You might think, then, given all of that, that everyone, to a man, woman and child, would feel nothing but sympathy and sadness for the man. For his friends and family, and for the staff at the park. But, no. Not in 2026. Instead, a good deal of the reaction across social media was nastiness, spite and a relentless callousness. It prompted me to tweet: “This terrible incident has furthered my conviction that free speech and the preservation thereof is one thing, but it does not mean we should give a stage, a light and a microphone to anyone and everyone.” Once upon a time I would have stood full-square behind the maxim: I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. The reaction online (which isn’t a third, removed, pretend dimension by the way. These people are effectively standing in town squares spouting their bile) to this awful tragedy has me questioning whether or not that Voltairian principle still holds these days because the things some people say arewholly and absolutely indefensible.
So where does it come from? A man is mauled to death in full view of the general public at one of Yorkshire’s best-loved family attractions, and the reaction (from more than a handful of people) is spite and nastiness, malice and vindictiveness. What is that has nurtured this inhumane malevolence? Has a certain type of person been so brainwashed by cheap, single-wear fashion, nutritionless junk food, three-second video clips and infinite doomscrolling that the life of a man in their minds can be equated to the value of the box that their last burger came in? ‘It’s just humour,’ they’ll say. ‘It’s just my opinion,’ they’ll bleat. It isn’t. It’s vile, ill-will that is symptomatic of a culture and a people of which I want no part.
And ... the saddest, bleakest thing about this set of circumstances is that the genie is out of the bottle, and even the bottle wouldn’t have it back, even if we could find a way to return it.
Look after one another. Be kind to strangers; they may not be OK. Your smile, your hello might just be the nicest thing that happens to them that day.
James
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Write to me - it’s nice to hear from you all: james.mitchinson@iconicmediagroup.co.uk
NB: correspondence sent to me will be deemed fit for publication.
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