APPLE VALLEY, Minn., Aug. 5 (UPI) -- Five meerkats at the Minnesota Zoo were euthanized after a 9-year-old girl stuck her hand into their enclosure and got bitten.
The animals -- two adults and three young born this spring -- tested negative for rabies, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported. They had been vaccinated, but state law required them to be killed and tested because the girl's parents did not want her to have rabies shots.
"Although we knew there was just a minute chance they had rabies, we had no choice in this," said Tony Fisher, the collections manager. "Of course, the public's safety comes first."
The meerkats, foot-long mongoose relatives native to the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa, were among the zoo's most popular exhibits. The zoo hopes to add a female to its four surviving male meerkats to get another family going.
Fisher said the incident is the first involving a member of the public being bitten. Keepers who have been bitten have always chosen to have a painful series of shots instead of having animals killed.
