Guess he was Stressed...

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2007-12-26 02:08am

Link

Escaped tiger kills visitor at San Francisco Zoo
New 7:25PM Wednesday December 26, 2007

A tiger escaped from a cage at the San Francisco Zoo today, killing a visitor and injuring two people, according to local news reports.

Police shot and killed the tiger, while the injured visitors were taken to a hospital and listed in a serious but stable condition, the station said.

The attacks happened about 5 p.m. local time and the zoo was evacuated.

The incident happened a year after a Siberian tiger ripped the flesh off a zookeeper's arm as horrified visitors looked on.

The public feeding house was closed following the December 22, 2006, attack, and reopened in September after $250,000 was spent on safety upgrades.

Before Tuesday's incident, the zoo had two Siberian tigers, including the one that mauled the employee, and three Sumatran tigers.

-REUTERS

Post by **Edi** » 2007-12-26 03:31am

That's sad. Somebody must have been very incompetent to neglect safety precautions enough that a tiger managed to escape.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2007-12-26 11:30am

I'm stressed and we have yet to hear of a leathal bear mauling in Yosemite National park. (actually the deer are the only animals to have outright killed tourists, a squirrel's parasites have caused a few close calls with pestulus pestilli, and Rabies)

ok we have had momma bear mayhem, in which a bear clawed a japanese tourist who was threatening her cub.... (and I say Mayhem because the tourist survived, he just doesn't have all of one of his legs anymore.

)

DarthShady · Post by **DarthShady** » 2007-12-26 12:23pm

The public feeding house was closed following the December 22, 2006, attack, and reopened in September after $250,000 was spent on safety upgrades.

I wonder what kind of safety upgrades they bought with that money?

Thag · Post by **Thag** » 2007-12-26 06:39pm

When incidents like this occur, I'm reminded of a comedy skit I heard a couple of years ago (paraphrased):

"You hear about these zoo animals getting loose and killing someone, and the media always says the animal was stressed and went crazy. News flash people, it's a giant predator! It wants to eat you! That tiger didn't go crazy, that tiger went tiger."

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2007-12-26 06:52pm

I can't imagine that happening at a well-run zoo. That's just mind-boggling.

SpacedTeddyBear · Post by **SpacedTeddyBear** » 2007-12-26 08:39pm

The tiger in question supposedly had a history of attacking people if I remember correctly. This was the same tiger that did the mauling of the zookeeper last year as well.

I doubt the zookeepers were careless enough to leave the gate locked. Eventually, the investigators will look into whether there was any provocation by the initial victim.

I wonder what kind of safety upgrades they bought with that money?

Well originally, there was a 20ft high concrete barrier with a moat running parallel to it.

Terralthra · Post by **Terralthra** » 2007-12-26 09:31pm

The two surviving maul victims are refusing to cooperate with police, and every zookeeper and safety expert polled agrees that the tiger almost certainly couldn't have gotten out unassisted. The current theory is that one of the 'victims' climbed into the grotto and was taunting the tiger, and it leaped across the 20 foot moat and used him as a jumping off point to get over the wall.

Elfdart · Post by **Elfdart** » 2007-12-27 12:55am

On the news, they said the negligenpolice are treating it as a crime scene and have found no evidence of malfeasance on the part of the zoo.

Elfdart · Post by **Elfdart** » 2007-12-27 12:57am

Ghetto Edit: police -not negligenpolice (wtf?)

Feil · Post by **Feil** » 2007-12-27 01:03am

Terralthra wrote:The two surviving maul victims are refusing to cooperate with police, and every zookeeper and safety expert polled agrees that the tiger almost certainly couldn't have gotten out unassisted. The current theory is that one of the 'victims' climbed into the grotto and was taunting the tiger, and it leaped across the 20 foot moat and used him as a jumping off point to get over the wall.

Applicable link: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/sto ... d=10484400

---

Poor tiger. Whether it was let out or whether the safety precautions were simply insufficient, she was just being a tiger.

Will whoever's responsible for letting the tiger escape be tried for manslaughter?

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2007-12-27 01:06am

whose immortal hand or eye did frame his or her fearful semetry

Drewcifer · Post by **Drewcifer** » 2007-12-27 02:22am

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

[....]
Zoo officials said they are trying to figure out how the 4-year-old Siberian tiger named Tatiana escaped from her enclosure shortly after the zoo's 5 p.m. closing time. No doors to the grotto had been left ajar, they said. The animal is the same one that attacked a zookeeper almost exactly a year ago.

Officials speculated that one of the victims may have been dangling a leg or other body part over the 14-foot grotto wall and that Tatiana latched onto the limb and climbed out. Police sources said a footprint had been found on a metal fence, suggesting that someone had climbed it to get closer to the big cats.

Zoo Director Manuel Mollinedo said it was also likely that the animal was provoked.

"Somebody created a situation that really agitated her and gave her some sort of a method to break out," Mollinedo said. "There is no possible way the cat could have made it out of there in a single leap. I would surmise that there was help.

"A couple of feet dangling over the edge could possibly have done it."

Sources said pinecones and sticks that were found in the moat might have been thrown at the animal. Those items could not have landed in the grotto naturally, they said.

However, police Sgt. Neville Gittens maintained that there was no reason to think that the victims were taunting the tiger.[....]

I thought that the following was very interesting, given the nature of predators typically focusing on specific prey, rather than haphazardly attacking at random:

It's not known why the tiger singled out the three visitors or why she tracked down the two wounded victims, apparently ignoring other zoo patrons.

And apparently, all three victims were visiting the zoo together:

The three victims, all young men from San Jose, were visiting the zoo together. They were all present when the tiger escaped, killed 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr. with a savage slash to the throat, and injured the other two.

I really do wonder if these guys were taunting the tiger and she just decided to defend her territory.

SpacedTeddyBear wrote:The tiger in question supposedly had a history of attacking people if I remember correctly. This was the same tiger that did the mauling of the zookeeper last year as well.

I think you're remembering a different story:

SF Chronicle wrote:This is the second time in just over a year that this same tiger attacked a human.

On Dec. 22, 2006, Tatiana chewed the flesh off zookeeper Lori Komejan's arm in front of about 50 visitors lingering in the Lion House after the cats were fed. A state investigation later ruled that the zoo was at fault for the attack because of the way the cages were configured.

"There was never any consideration for putting her down. The tiger was acting like a normal tiger," Mollinedo said.

Published: 04:33 EST, December 23, 2006 (AP) -- A 350-pound Siberian tiger that mauled an experienced San Francisco Zoo keeper so badly she could lose her arm had no history of violence, prompting an investigation into what led to the vicious attack.

http://www.physorg.com/news86070788.html

Tatiana:

Darth Yoshi · Post by **Darth Yoshi** » 2007-12-27 09:23am

That sucks. If the trio was in fact provoking her, then they got what they deserved. Even so, it's a shame she had be killed.

ArmorPierce · Post by **ArmorPierce** » 2007-12-27 09:34am

looks like she really might have been stressed.

Flagg · Post by **Flagg** » 2007-12-27 09:40am

I knew a guy who used to work at a 'big cat rescue' center in Florida and he used to tell me stories about the different lions and tigers he worked with.

He said that generally the tigers were very easy to work with and would play with you very gently alot like a housecat. As long as you respected them, anyway. Which means being cognisant of the fact that they could kill you without even trying.

Apparently the lions were much more difficult to work with and would attack you with little or no provocation. They also would play with you, but didn;t seem to have the ability or inclination to do so gently.

It's too bad this happened.

18-Till-I-Die · Post by **18-Till-I-Die** » 2007-12-27 10:11am

Tenuous report here, but before that woman over in Pakistan was killed they were talking about this tiger attack, and said that the shoe prints and one shoe of the dead guy was in the tiger cage itself (or some such) and they believe based on witnesses that he had climbed partially into the cage and was "taunting" and "yelling" at the tiger.

Again this was kind of a blurb i heard, but if it's true, it makes sense that she singled him out to kill while only wounding the others (as i'm sure she could have executed those guys quite easily if inclined). Also it makes the fact they blew the tiger away more tragic. If they were taunting and yelling at her...well, i dont believe they deserved to die, but i cant help but blame them for this whole fiasco.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2007-12-27 10:14am

Did they find any alcohol in the dead idiot's remains? Or was he an "Extreme Sports" and "energy drink" guy?

Post by **Broomstick** » 2007-12-27 10:31am

One of the problems with the big cats is that the more often one attacks/injures a human the more likely she will do so again. Once they start thinking of humans as "food" rather than "bipeds moving around here and occasionally delivering lunch" handling them becomes much, much more hazardous. So a tiger injuring/killing a human once may be an accident, but doing so multiple times gets to be more of a long-term safety issue.

DarthShady · Post by **DarthShady** » 2007-12-27 11:03am

Broomstick wrote:One of the problems with the big cats is that the more often one attacks/injures a human the more likely she will do so again. Once they start thinking of humans as "food" rather than "bipeds moving around here and occasionally delivering lunch" handling them becomes much, much more hazardous. So a tiger injuring/killing a human once may be an accident, but doing so multiple times gets to be more of a long-term safety issue.

I saw a documentary about big cats once(lions) and the guy from the show said that the lions wouldn't attack him unless they considered him a treat to their young or food.I was amazed because the guy managed to get pretty close to the lions and even play with one of the little ones without getting attacked.

Spin Echo · Post by **Spin Echo** » 2007-12-27 11:14am

It's always the animals that seem to pay for people's stupidity.

When I volunteered at the humane society, we had to put down a couple of animals because parents let their brat kids terrorise the animals and then started screaming bloody murder when they got bit.

Such a shame considering how few Siberian tigers there are left.

Post by **Edi** » 2007-12-27 11:26am

Whoever designed that tiger cage was a fucking incompetent. A twenty-foot fence is not adequate to confine something like a tiger. The zoo here has the 20-foot fence, but the top of the fence curves inward and the enclosure is also covered with wire mesh on the top, preventing the animals from getting out accidentally. So they can only get out if the cage door is left open.

So what we have here seems from the articles to be a negligently constructed tiger enclosure and probably three morons who thought they could safely torment the creature inside. If they were indeed provoking the tiger, my opinion is that they got exactly what they deserved. It's a shame the tiger had to be killed, but there wasn't much choice due to the innocent bystanders being at risk.

tedisbest · Post by **tedisbest** » 2007-12-27 03:06pm

Edi wrote:Whoever designed that tiger cage was a fucking incompetent. A twenty-foot fence is not adequate to confine something like a tiger.

According to the NY Post, the wall was 14ft high, surrounded by a 20ft-deep dry moat at least 25ft wide. So it's actually 34 feet for the tiger to scale.

18-Till-I-Die · Post by **18-Till-I-Die** » 2007-12-27 04:34pm

You know i keep reading and hearing about how, somehow, this kid had gotten into the cage and was taunting the thing. Now i was looking at the AOL news thingy, and it linked to an article where it said that the police are investigating and that it seems the kid had climbed into the encloser and was, quote, "Dangling his leg in front of the tiger" before the attack. Before someone on the TV said a witness said they were yelling at the tiger.

Now if this is true, Jesus, i cant honestly imagine what these kids were thinking. I mean...it's a fucking tiger. They're like the stealth bombers of the animal world. Oh they dont look like they can move fast, cause they're so big, but you cant outrun the thing, no unarmed human can outfight one i'm certain, and you cant hide from it really cause their hearing and smell is so good. Seriously i've never been, and never will be, in the circles of people who think the Darwin Arwards is funny...but i honestly cant imagine how anyone could be so stupid. I dont think he deserved to die, but Jesus, if he really was dangling his foot in front of the tiger i'm surprised she didnt kill all three.

The Duchess of Zeon · Post by **The Duchess of Zeon** » 2007-12-27 05:13pm

No, the wall was 20ft high, and built to the specs that Edi describes, absent of any netting, of course. The moat did not have a wall beyond it; it was just a moat, with a simple short metal fence on the people side. The moat was 14 feet deep and 30ft across, apparently. The tiger being taunted supposedly jumped into the moat, and then jumped up, grabbing the victim's legs with its claws (as he was sitting on the edge of the moat while taunting her) and using him as a ladder. Then she eviscerated him and played with the corpse for a bit while wounding his two friends. Having finished with the first one, she pursued the trail of blood from the first two, and was in the process of killing one when the police lured her away and put her down in a hail of bullets (Tigers are big animals, and confronting one with a .40cal takes some guts). They probably emptied their clips just to be sure, and there were four officers.