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Tiger Mauling at SF Zoo


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http://www.latimes.com/la-me-tiger26dec26,0,744512.story

Escaped tiger kills man at S.F. Zoo

AP

This undated photo provided by the San Francisco Zoo shows Tatiana, a female Siberian tiger. Tatiana, the tiger that mauled a zookeeper last year escaped from its pen at the San Francisco Zoo on Tuesday, killing one man and injuring two others before police shot it dead, authorities said.

Animal mauls two more victims before being shot to death by police.

By Charles Piller and Tim Reiterman, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

December 26, 2007

SAN FRANCISCO -- A tiger escaped from its enclosure in the San Francisco Zoo on Christmas Day, mauled one man to death and left two others seriously injured. The tiger was shot and killed by police after it charged officers.

A police spokesperson said the zoo was evacuated after the incident, which occurred late in the afternoon near the Terrace Cafe at the east end of the zoo. The zoo was being searched for other possible victims Tuesday evening, even though there were no missing person reports. Police helicopters circled the area with searchlights as ambulances stood by.

Police set up a perimeter around the zoo and searched on foot for other possible victims.

Initially, officials believed that up to four tigers in the same enclosure may have escaped, but only one actually left its pen, said San Francisco Fire Department Lt. Mindy Talmadge.

Officials said that the same tiger, a Siberian named Tatiana, had mauled a zookeeper in front of horrified visitors about a year ago. Visitors then told zoo officials that the female tiger grabbed the keeper's hands in its claws and was pulling her. A second keeper freed the employee from the tiger's grip. The almost-daily public feedings were suspended.

"Nothing like this has ever happened before," Lora LaMarca, the director of marketing and public relations for the zoo, said at the time.

The tiger was kept in a grotto with a moat 20 feet deep and 15 to 18 feet across, surrounded by a 20-foot wall. Officials could not immediately say how the animal escaped, nor do they know precisely how long it was out of its enclosure.

At a little after 5 p.m. Tuesday, when there were as few as 20 visitors at the zoo, police received a report of a tiger on the loose, said Police Sgt. Steve Mannina. Four officers responded and soon encountered a zoo employee in a golf cart who said there was a wounded patron in front of the tiger grotto. That man died of his injuries, Mannina said.

Police then started to search for the tiger, finding it at the zoo's Terrace Cafe, about 300 yards from the tiger enclosure, where they encountered a visitor with blood on his face. They approached with their emergency lights on.

"The tiger sees them, then goes back on the victim and continues to maul the victim," Mannina said.

"Then the tiger charges the police officers and four fired," killing the animal.

The victims, who were in their 20s, were not zoo employees. No other details about their identities were immediately available.

Mayor Gavin Newsom was "deeply saddened" about the incident, said his spokesman, Nathan Ballard. "A thorough investigation is being undertaken to uncover all the facts and to understand how this tragedy could have occurred," Ballard said.

The zoo entrance was blocked Tuesday evening near San Francisco's Great Highway and adjacent to Ocean Beach and the densely populated Sunset District.

The two injured men were being treated at San Francisco General Hospital, where the nursing supervisor said they were in serious but stable condition. Officials said the zoo will be closed today out of respect for the victims. It is typically open every day of the year.

charles.piller@latimes.com

tim.reiterman@latimes.com

Times staff writer Charles Ornstein contributed to this report.

:(

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Holy Moses! I was just telling a friend about the SF Zoo when they would feed the lions and how the 2 males inside the building would both start a 'roaring contest' (I think one of them has died since then) and it was SO LOUD you had to cover your ears. Truly the king of beasts.

So how the hell does a tiger get loose?

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You sure he didn't say "That's Great!"

Because it may have been Tony the Tiger.

The guy that did the Tony The Tiger commercial was the one who sang in the original Grinch cartoon:

'You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch!'

B)

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I personally do not like zoos and have always found them to be dirty and sad places. Every few years we hear about a big cat or an elephant killing somebody. I just don't see what the facination is with seeing a bunch of animals locked in cages for so long that they become so pissed off that the first chance they get they kill somebody. Oh, and the monkeys and apes throwing and eating their own shit is also REALLY ENTERTAINING too!

But then again, the fact that there might be a chance of getting killed and eaten at a zoo does seem to have some apeal to my dark side.

Ted Nugent is right. Animals are to be eaten and stuffed or left alone. But putting them in cages just to satisfy human vanity is just as stupid as having pets in the backyard or on a leash.

Human vanity is all it is.

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Holy Moses! I was just telling a friend about the SF Zoo when they would feed the lions and how the 2 males inside the building would both start a 'roaring contest' (I think one of them has died since then) and it was SO LOUD you had to cover your ears. Truly the king of beasts.

So how the hell does a tiger get loose?

Well, apparently it jumped the "impossible to get out of cage" 20ft wall.

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I think Tatiana got what she wanted.

To be put out of her misery.

Obvious suicide mission.

The part where the police report says,

'The tiger was found at the cafe', is kinda funny.

What, she stopped for a cappuccino?!

Too bad about the poor guys that had to suffer.

The ones that survived will live to brag about being attacked by a Tiger though.

I hope I never have to go to another zoo again in my life. Zoos suxx.

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I wouldn't be surprised if we find out they had been taunting the animal. That's happened before. All the guys attacked were friends.

People can't blame the animals for this stuff. They are just being themselves.

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I assumed that all Zoos had Emergency Response Teams in place, for just such an escape.

It looks like Zoos just can't handle a panic situation.

Zoos across America are all probably woefully undertrained to deal with these situations.

Thank God that airliners don't crash every day... but the airline crews are required to undergo extensive survival/crash training.

Apparantly not so for Zoos.

What Happened with the SF Zoo Response Team.... I have yet to hear that mentioned in all of the wonderful Big Media coverage..

I suppose they'll get around to trifiling details like that, a little bit later....

? ? ?

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It's now being reported that a shoe and blood were found outside of the tigers cage and the edge of the moat making the police question if any of them were taunting the tiger by tangling their legs or something else or if they maybe helped the tiger get out by putting something across the water.

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The walls were only 12 feet high, but the recommended height is 16 feet. The lawyers are gonna make a killing, no pun intended.

Maybe the Tiger should get Al Sharpton to hook him up with a legal team.

Tony the Tiger was just a vicitim of The Man and circumstances that he had no control over. Keeping him down putting him in a cage and all. The temptation was put before him and the opportunity to bust out of The Man's cage after all this time was too much to bear. He shouldn't be held responsible for munching on someone's leg....someone who may have been TAUNTING him. Dude got what he deserved. Dude represented all the captivity The Man had laid on Tony the Tiger and all his fellow tigers through the years, keeping him locked up...held down you know. Surely you can't hold Tony the Tiger responsible for his actions in this situation.

If the moat doesn't fit, you must acquit.

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Don't they keep tranquilizer guns somewhere in the zoo for things like this?? :huh:

Punks were taunting her.

You don't mess with big cats!

Remember the Las Vegas incident, Roy & whatshisname.

I don't like zoos either, they say they treat animals well, but what animal wants to be in the freezing cold like our zoo here. Well, except polar bears and penguins, and then they have to suffer the extreme heat in the summer.

Leave the cats alone!

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This addresses the killing of the animal:

From the SF Chronicle:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl.....;/MN39U4TQ5.DTL

Big-cat expert Ronald Tilson who, since 1987 has been overseeing the tiger species survival plan of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.who is responsible for the 147 Siberians, or Amurs, that live in more than 60 AZA-accredited zoos in North America, said, "I'm the one who made the recommendation for her to be born in Denver. I'm the one who made a recommendation to send her to San Francisco. I feel personally involved with all of this. To me, it's very disconcerting and very upsetting."

"Once the animal is out of its primary enclosure, it's pretty much shoot to kill," Tilson said. "You don't have a discussion - you kill it. A tranquilizer gun would take too long and you might miss."

Marian Roth-Cramer recalled the day she and her son, who was 4 or 5, visited the tiger exhibit at the SF Zoo in 1997.

"My son had his hands on the metal bar," said the San Francisco woman, a children's dance and family programs coordinator at a branch of the YMCA. "All of a sudden, I saw the tiger leap over the moat, put a paw on the dirt (and hang on). I screamed and grabbed my son."

The animal slid away. She turned to a zookeeper and asked if he'd seen what she had. His reply: "She always does that. She hates my guts."

She wrote a letter to David Anderson, the zoo director at the time, about the incident and canceled her membership. She said she never got a reply.

****************************************

The 4 year old Tatiana Dec. 16th. 2007

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Now it's being reported that the wall wasn't 20 feet high. It's 12 feet high. Jack Hanna at the time said that he could not picture a tiger leaping that far. Now that he has heard it is only 12 feet he has changed his mind. if the tiger was being provoked he said it's possible she could have leap that distance.

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We decided to research how far tigers are known to be able to leap. From the American Museum of Natural History:

No animal fires our imaginations like the tiger -- and for good reason. Tigers are the largest of the big cats. They are incredibly powerful predators: Bengal tigers can bring down wild cattle weighing a ton or more. They are as agile as they are strong: tigers can leap more than 30 feet (9 m) in a single bound, climb trees, and swim for miles. And in their forest habitats, they can disappear in an instant, melting soundlessly into the brush. "When you see a tiger," says Indian biologist Ullas Karanth, "it is always like a dream."

We did the math. Tiger's can leap up to 30 ft. in one bound. The zoo's moat is 15 ft. wide. The wall of the enclosure is 20 ft. tall. Tatiana was a Siberian tiger, the largest of the world's cats.

http://deathby1000papercuts.blogspot.com/2...all-tigers.html

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I personally do not like zoos and have always found them to be dirty and sad places. Every few years we hear about a big cat or an elephant killing somebody. I just don't see what the facination is with seeing a bunch of animals locked in cages for so long that they become so pissed off that the first chance they get they kill somebody. Oh, and the monkeys and apes throwing and eating their own shit is also REALLY ENTERTAINING too!

But then again, the fact that there might be a chance of getting killed and eaten at a zoo does seem to have some apeal to my dark side.

Ted Nugent is right. Animals are to be eaten and stuffed or left alone. But putting them in cages just to satisfy human vanity is just as stupid as having pets in the backyard or on a leash.

Human vanity is all it is.

I actually agree with some of this.

The more I know, the less I like most zoos. Fortunately, a lot of them are getting away from the 'locked up in cages' mentality and trying to make things more 'natural' for them.

I don't think it's all just human vanity though. Some zoos have carefully run breeding programs for endangered species. Some also have educational programs. (My daughter was thrilled when a 'bat lady' visited her kindergarten class). Perhaps folks will be a bit less indifferent to the plight of various animals and animal species if they know a bit about them. (Sorry, but the guy who kills a snake, any snake, simply because it's a snake is an idiot... and countless rodent-eating, harmless-to-people snakes are dead.

BTW, I have my dog on a leash when I walk him because I care about him. I don't think it's stupid... and if I didn't have him on a leash, you'd probably call that stupid.

As for Teddy... maybe he can get stuffed.

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It's being reported that the two surviving guys have been giving police a hard time. They didn't even want to give them their names. I smell guilt. Meaning they were doing something they should not have been doing.

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