{"id":802395,"date":"2026-10-14T14:18:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T14:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/802395\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T14:18:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T14:18:11","slug":"family-of-man-killed-by-tiger-criticise-online-content-after-trump-reposts-video-south-yorkshire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/802395\/","title":{"rendered":"Family of man killed by tiger criticise online content after Trump reposts video | South Yorkshire"},"content":{"rendered":"

The family of a man killed by a tiger at a wildlife park in the UK have spoken about their \u201csevere distress\u201d at the circulation of online media after Donald Trump<\/a> reposted a video of the incident.<\/p>\n

William Chapman, 23, was mauled to death after entering an enclosure at Yorkshire Wildlife Park, near Doncaster<\/a>, on Saturday.<\/p>\n

His family described him as \u201cbright, warm and engaging\u201d and suffering from severe mental illness. They said online footage being shared was \u201cdeeply offensive\u201d and causing them \u201csevere distress\u201d.<\/p>\n

One of those to circulate footage was the US president who posted a video clip of the tiger attack to 13 million followers on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The clip showed the tiger biting and clawing Chapman as he was sitting in the enclosure. At one point he wags his finger at the animal.<\/p>\n

Trump signed the footage with: \u201cDon\u2019t ever mess with nature! President DJT.\u201d It did not show Chapman being killed.<\/p>\n

Later the president posted an AI-generated video of himself grinning and having fun by chasing and play fighting with the tiger. It is accompanied by the song The Lion Sleeps Tonight by The Tokens. It features Trump copying the pointing gesture made by Chapman and ends with him and the tiger hugging.<\/p>\n

Will Travers, the executive president of the Born Free Foundation,<\/a> said the AI post was \u201cnot only incredibly insensitive\u201d, but also reckless.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt increases the risk to the lives of humans and captive wild animals,\u201d he said. \u201cSuch images and videos can encourage individuals to seek out direct, unrealistic and high-risk contact with captive wild animals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Relatives of Chapman, in a statement released on Tuesday evening, said: \u201cThe family are utterly devastated by their loss and are struggling to come to terms with what has happened. The publication and circulation of deeply offensive media content is causing them severe distress at an exceptionally vulnerable time. We ask people to stop doing this.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe family are hopeful that the relevant authorities will do their upmost to get to the bottom of why our amazing son did what he did.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statement continued: \u201cWilliam was a bright, warm and engaging young man whom his family dearly loved \u2013 and William loved them back. Sadly, William suffered from significant mental illness over a number of years and was consequently prescribed strong medication.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be for the coroner to decide what part this played in his death.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would ask everybody to respect that process.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a child, Chapman appeared in ITV\u2019s 2009 comedy drama May Contain Nuts and in BBC Learning\u2019s True Stories series, according to IMDb<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He previously attended Jackie Palmer stage school in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, which paid tribute on Facebook<\/a> and posted a picture of Chapman as a child student.<\/p>\n

The school said it was \u201cdeeply saddened\u201d by Chapman\u2019s death, adding: \u201cWe loved watching William grow, both as a person and as a performer. It was a privilege to be part of his journey and he will be remembered with great fondness by everyone who had the pleasure of knowing him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWilliam will be truly missed, and he will always hold a special place in our hearts. Rest in peace, William.\u201d<\/p>\n

The wildlife park has said the Amur (Siberian) tiger called Altai, who was in the enclosure, will not be euthanised. The park has remained closed since the weekend and Doncaster city council, which is responsible for licensing the park, said it had started a health and safety investigation.<\/p>\n

An inquest is due to open into the death at Doncaster coroner\u2019s court on Thursday morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The family of a man killed by a tiger at a wildlife park in the UK have spoken…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":802396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-802395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=802395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/802396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}