This is the moment a man jumps into the lions' enclosure at the zoo.
He is addicted to drugs and alcohol, which is really the only excuse for doing this,
to be honest.
But he hasn't just wandered in by accident as you might expect, he's come with the express
purpose of confronting the lions.
So what do the lions think about this?
Oh, shocker...
Chung-ho Chen was a 46-year-old man when he jumped the wall to the lion's enclosure at
Taipei zoo in Taiwan in 2004.
Not much is known about him other than he was addicted to amphetamines and abusing alcohol
- suffering delusions as a result and hearing voices in his head.
If a voice ever tells you to jump into the lion's enclosure, be it from inside your head
or outside, don't do it.
Confronting a lion and lioness, Chen says to them; "Jesus will save you!".
I don't think the lions are the ones that need saving at this point but apparently Chen
is on a mission to convert them to Christianity.
So who do you think is going to win out in this encounter - the warm embrace of Jesus
Christ or these heathen lions?
It might seem like a foregone conclusion, but Chen has two things in his favour here.
One, the lions were fed not long before this encounter, so instead of thinking "dinner
has come to us" they're more likely thinking "what the hell are you doing in here?"
Two, Chen is crazy.
That might not sound like an advantage but look at him.
He's not scared, he's got conviction, confidence - he's standing right up to those lions.
Generally, a lion wants to prey, it doesn't want to fight.
And right now Chen isn't acting like prey, that kind of confidence can make an animal
second guess itself.
After all, if it's not afraid, maybe it has a reason not to be afraid, maybe it knows
something you don't, maybe you're the one that should be afraid.
Here's a gorilla charging a man who doesn't flinch, and the gorilla retreats.
Here's a cat chasing away an alligator.
Here's a honey badger fighting off three leopards.
These are all animals that could have been easily torn to pieces, and really, probably
just got lucky they didn't catch the other in a bad mood, but if they had of shown fear
instead of standing up to their attackers, that probably would have been the end of them.
Chen's in a similar situation, if he runs away or cowers, the lions' predatory instincts
are almost certainly going to kick in.
But Chen isn't afraid, he says "Come bite me!" and waves his coat infront of the lions.
Now he's made a mistake.
The lion clearly wasn't impressed by Chen's choice of jacket.
Worse still, Chen's cowered away from the lion's attack and fallen back on a rock, and
the lion noticed.
Now the lion's thinking "I'm having some of that".
He bites Chen's exposed arm.
Should've held onto the jacket, mate.
The lion backs away holding out his tongue as if to say "this is the worst Chinese I've
ever had"; the lion being oblivious to the fact that he's in Taiwan and although some
there might identify as Chinese, there are differing views among the population regarding
their cultural and ethnic identity.
The lion didn't get too much fight back the last time, so he goes in again.
Chen again pulls his hair and the lion doesn't like that - he wouldn't mind a little snack
but not if it's going to be painful.
He goes in for another try but Chen raises his fist and the lion backs up.
The lions still aren't sure what to do about this fella in their enclosure, and by now
the commotion has assumedly woken up the zoo keepers; and they're like, "who's this crackhead
trying to feed the lions, they're on a strict diet".
They get their tranquilizer guns and blow darts out but they're not sure what to do
about Chen, he refuses to leave.
They're afraid if they hit the lions with the tranquilizers this fella might start messing
with them.
They discuss tranquilizing him too but they don't have the correct dosage for humans,
instead they get the fire brigade in with high pressure hoses.
The vets open fire on the lions and one dart finds its target on the male, two others miss.
The lion won't go down just yet so they use the hoses to keep the lions away from Chen,
cats hate water.
The lions go to the far end of the enclosure where a man with a blowdart can tag the male.
The lion decides he's had enough of being a dartboard and heads inside his cage.
The lioness has taken refuge under a rock, but the situation is quite distressing for
her.
She makes a run for Chen and police draw their guns on her.
Thankfully the hoses scare her off.
At some point she'd been hit with tranq darts, so her energy is starting to run out.
The police try to coax Chen into coming out, although he still doesn't seem to want to.
Then he realises he won't be able to preach God's love to the lions if they're asleep,
and he limps his way to rescue.
The lions are thankfully unharmed.
Having rejected Christ's message, they get stoned and fall asleep.
Chen is not as fortunate, he's got bite wounds and gashes - but it could've been a lot worse.
If the lions hadn't have been recently fed, or if he'd have turned and run, he'd almost
certainly have been killed.
He was placed in a psychiatric hospital where they tended his wounds and got him off the
drugs.
He was released as a sober man - clean and serene.
Wonder did he ever go back to the zoo and be like "remember me?
we got high together once and you tried to kill me, but I'm alright now".
Then again, I'd doubt the zoo were too keen to have him back.
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