The Badaling Wildlife World animal park in Beijing, China has earned a notorious reputation in recent days over the spate of incidents that have happened within its premises. Just last week, the zoo made global headlines when a woman was mauled to death by a Siberian tiger after the woman got out of her car in the middle of the safari-style tour. Then a few days ago, another group of tourists found themselves in close contact with another Siberian tiger that tore the front bumper clean off of their Volkswagen Jetta. No injuries were reported in this encounter.

Thanks to footage taken from the dash cam inside the Jetta, we get a close look at the moment the tiger decided to give the Jetta its own version of a facelift by biting the bumper before pulling the whole thing off of the rest of the car. Thinking that it may have found an afternoon snack, the tiger retreats back into the woods and starts going to town on the front bumper.

The owners of the VW Jetta managed to have the bumper returned to them when they finished up on the tour. A quick examination of the panel revealed huge holes just beside the license plate where the tiger took a bite out of it. Fortunately, the bumper was the only casualty in this incident, a far happier outcome than the poor lady who that was mauled and the park employee that was killed by an elephant back in March 2016.

Not that it’s obvious at this point, but if somebody wants to keep their car in good and working condition, the Badaling Wildlife World animal park in Beijing, China is one of the last places you should go to.

Continue after the jump to read the full story.

Why it matters

I don't’ think I need to remind everyone about the inherent dangers of being too close to animals of the large feline persuasion. This incident may be on the light-hearted side given that the people inside the Volkswagen Jetta managed to live to tell the story of their ordeal, but let’s not forget, a woman actually died because she got mauled by a tiger. That’s not a laughing matter in any language.

To be fair to the park, it did have signs spread throughout the place explicitly requiring everybody to remain in their cars when they’re inside the park, specifically one that reads: “Cherish your life. Never get out of your car."

The woman who was killed by the tiger got out of her car because according to reports, she was having an argument with one of the people she was with. She made a mistake, and grizzly as it is to even think about, she paid the price of her life for it. Our deepest condolences go out to the victim’s family over that unspeakable tragedy.

Now as far as the zoo itself is concerned, I get the novelty of it. People can get to drive their cars inside safari-style and interact with the animals from inside their cars. But count me out on being one of those people who will actually take my car. I’m not about to let a lion or a tiger lay waste to my ride just so I can tell everyone that it literally clawed off my hood. No thanks on that regard. I’ll leave it up to people like the driver and passenger of the Volkswagen Jetta to get their thrills on being that close to those big cats. Let their cars get destroyed; I’m not subjecting mine to that kind of danger.