Last year Eric York a biologist for the National Park Service died from the plague after doing a necropsy on a mountain lion that died from the same disease inside of Grand Canyon National Park. A year latter a report has been completed on his death;
National Park Service investigators found unsafe work practices, violations of federal labor regulations and park policy failure in the death of wildlife biologist Eric York, 37, who was found dead Nov. 2, 2007.
Their report recommended additional supervisor oversight and further safety requirements for handling dead animals.
York — who was not wearing gloves when he conducted a post-mortem examination of the cougar — died alone on a couch in his house on the canyon’s South Rim sometime between Oct. 31 and Nov. 2 from an advanced stage of pneumonic plague, The (Flagstaff) Arizona Daily Sun reported.
UPI
The National Park Service over the past few years has really been stretched and one has to wonder if the strains on the system has put workers at risk. A very tragic situation and even harder to think that this may have been prevented had the NPS management been giving employee’s appropriate supervision.
