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| Lions and Tigers and Bears, OH MY!!!!; Tiger rampages in San Francisco Zoo | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Dec 26 2007, 05:31 PM (403 Views) | |
| ivorythumper | Dec 26 2007, 05:31 PM Post #1 |
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I am so adjective that I verb nouns!
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Was Zoo Tiger Set Free by Someone? By JORDAN ROBERTSON,AP Posted: 2007-12-26 18:49:32 Filed Under: Nation News SAN FRANCISCO (Dec. 26) - The big cat exhibit at the San Francisco Zoo was cordoned off as a crime scene Wednesday as investigators tried to determine whether a 300-pound Siberian tiger that killed a visitor escaped from its high-walled pen on its own or got help from someone, inadvertent or otherwise. Police shot the animal to death after a Christmas Day rampage that began when the tiger escaped from an enclosure surrounded by what zoo officials said are an 18-foot wall and a 20-foot moat. Two other visitors were severely mauled. Police Chief Heather Fong said the department has opened a criminal investigation to "determine if there was human involvement in the tiger getting out or if the tiger was able to get out on its own." Police said they have not ruled anything out, including whether the escape was the result of carelessness or a deliberate act. Fong said officers were gathering evidence from the tiger's enclosure as well as accounts from witnesses and others. One zoo official insisted the tiger did not get out through an open door and must have climbed or leaped out. But Jack Hanna, former director of the Columbus Zoo and a frequent guest on TV, said such a leap would be an unbelievable feat, and "virtually impossible." "There's something going on here. It just doesn't feel right to me," he said. "It just doesn't add up to me." Instead, he speculated that visitors might have been fooling around and might have taunted the animal and perhaps even helped it get out by, say, putting a board in the moat. Similarly, Ron Magill, a spokesman at the Miami Metro Zoo, said it is unlikely a zoo tiger could make such a leap, even with a running start. "Captive tigers aren't nearly in the kind of shape that wild tigers have to be in to survive," he said. He said taunting can definitely make an animal more aggressive, but "whether it makes it more likely to get out of an exhibit is purely speculative." The police chief would not comment on whether the animal was taunted. The same tiger, a 4-year-old female named Tatiana, ripped the flesh off a zookeeper's arm just before Christmas a year ago while the woman was feeding the animal through the bars. A state investigation faulted the zoo, which installed better equipment at the Lion House, where the big cats are kept. Zoo director Manual Mollinedo said Wednesday that he gave no thought to destroying Tatiana after the 2006 incident, because "the tiger was acting as a normal tiger does." As for whether Tatiana showed any warning signs before Tuesday's attack, Mollinedo said: "She seemed to be very well-adjusted into that exhibit." It was unclear how long the tiger had been loose before it was killed. The three visitors were attacked around closing time Tuesday on the 125-acre zoo grounds. Four officers hunted down and shot the animal after police got a 911 call from a zoo employee. The zoo has a response team that can shoot animals. But zoo officials and police described the initial moments after the escape as chaotic. The dead visitor was identified as 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr. of San Jose. The two injured men, ages 19 and 23, were upgraded to stable condition at San Francisco General Hospital after surgery. They suffered deep bites and claw wounds on their heads, necks, arms and hands, said Dr. Rochelle Dicker, a surgeon. She said they were expected to make a full recovery. The zoo's director of animal care and conservation, Robert Jenkins, said the tiger did not leave through an open door. "The animal appears to have climbed or otherwise leaped out of the enclosure," he said. But the zoo's director admitted, "We're still not too clear as to exactly what transpired." Hanna predicted other U.S. zoos would reassess their tiger enclosures if it turns out the tiger was able to leap out. He said he never before heard of a zoo visitor being killed by an animal. "It's much safer going to a zoo than getting in your car and going down the driveway," he said. Hanna said that since zoo tigers are well fed, it is unlikely the animal was looking for food when it got out. "Were they taunting the animal?" he said. "Were they throwing things that were making it angry?" The first attack happened right outside the tiger's enclosure — the victim died at the scene. Another was about 300 yards away, in front of the zoo cafe. The police chief said the animal was mauling the man, and when officers yelled at it to stop, it turned toward them and they opened fire. Only then did they see the third victim, police said. About 20 visitors were in the zoo when the attacks happened about an hour before the 6 p.m. closing time, officials said. Employees and visitors were told to take shelter when zoo officials learned of the attacks, and some employees locked themselves inside buildings as they had been instructed to do if an animal escaped. There were five tigers at the zoo — three Sumatrans and two Siberians. Officials initially worried that four of them had gotten loose. The zoo was closed on Wednesday. Officials said they expected to reopen the place on Thursday, but the big cat exhibit will remain closed "until we get a better understanding of what actually happened," Mollinedo said. He said colleagues from other U.S. zoos will be brought in to help re-evaluate the big cat exhibit. After last year's attack, the state fined the zoo $18,000. The zoo added customized steel mesh over the bars, built in a feeding chute and increased the distance between the public and the cats. Tatiana arrived at the zoo from the Denver Zoo a few years ago, with officials hoping she would mate with a male tiger. Siberian tigers are classified as endangered and there are more than 600 of the animals living in captivity worldwide. U.S. Department of Agriculture spokesman Jim Rogers, said his agency is looking into the attack for violations of federal animal-welfare laws. The San Francisco Zoo is as an accredited member in good standing of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. "Animal escapes at accredited zoos are so very rare and each one is different," association spokesman Steve Feldman said. "But we are always looking for ways to improve safety for our visitors." |
| The dogma lives loudly within me. | |
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| Frank_W | Dec 26 2007, 05:34 PM Post #2 |
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Resident Misanthrope
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Hrmmm.... They may not be in the kind of shape they need to be in to survive in the wild, but they are extraordinarily powerful, lithe, and smart animals. Reminds me of a scene in "Water For Elephants." Sad that they had to kill the tiger...
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Anatomy Prof: "The human body has about 20 sq. meters of skin." Me: "Man, that's a lot of lampshades!" | |
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| Moonbat | Dec 26 2007, 05:56 PM Post #3 |
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Pisa-Carp
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Well they did tell it to stop first:
If only it had been one of those rare English speaking tigers perhaps it's life would have been spared. I think we all see the moral to this story: Teach tigers English. Not only will they give themselves up when police officers instruct them to do so but they may start responding to taunts with witty retorts rather than resorting to violence. |
| Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem | |
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| JBryan | Dec 26 2007, 06:10 PM Post #4 |
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I am the grey one
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Perhaps Russian would have been more recognizable to the Siberian Tiger. |
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"Any man who would make an X rated movie should be forced to take his daughter to see it". - John Wayne There is a line we cross when we go from "I will believe it when I see it" to "I will see it when I believe it". Henry II: I marvel at you after all these years. Still like a democratic drawbridge: going down for everybody. Eleanor: At my age there's not much traffic anymore. From The Lion in Winter. | |
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| Improviso | Dec 26 2007, 06:10 PM Post #5 |
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HOLY CARP!!!
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![]() [size=7]Don't taz me bro'.[/size] |
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Identifying narcissists isn't difficult. Just look for the person who is constantly fishing for compliments and admiration while breaking down over even the slightest bit of criticism. We have the freedom to choose our actions, but we do not get to choose our consequences. | |
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| JBryan | Dec 26 2007, 06:12 PM Post #6 |
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I am the grey one
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That looks more like a Bengal Tiger. That one may very well understand English about as well as you could expect from your average technical support. |
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"Any man who would make an X rated movie should be forced to take his daughter to see it". - John Wayne There is a line we cross when we go from "I will believe it when I see it" to "I will see it when I believe it". Henry II: I marvel at you after all these years. Still like a democratic drawbridge: going down for everybody. Eleanor: At my age there's not much traffic anymore. From The Lion in Winter. | |
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| ivorythumper | Dec 26 2007, 06:33 PM Post #7 |
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I am so adjective that I verb nouns!
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| The dogma lives loudly within me. | |
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| JBryan | Dec 26 2007, 06:49 PM Post #8 |
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I am the grey one
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LOL Tigers? |
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"Any man who would make an X rated movie should be forced to take his daughter to see it". - John Wayne There is a line we cross when we go from "I will believe it when I see it" to "I will see it when I believe it". Henry II: I marvel at you after all these years. Still like a democratic drawbridge: going down for everybody. Eleanor: At my age there's not much traffic anymore. From The Lion in Winter. | |
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| DivaDeb | Dec 26 2007, 07:14 PM Post #9 |
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HOLY CARP!!!
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you're all entertaining me with your glib responses.... cute men! |
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| Qaanaaq-Liaaq | Dec 27 2007, 08:05 AM Post #10 |
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Senior Carp
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Years ago, we saw Siegfreid and Roy’s show at the Frontier hotel in Las Vegas. I forgot the show’s name. It might have been “Beyond Belief” and it was very entertaining. Two or three unleashed Siberian tigers were featured as part of their act. The two show men made it appear as if they were just big oversized kitty cats. But the fact still remains that they’re basically dangerous animals despite how well trained they appear to be. I remember one of them describing Siberian tigers as being the perfect killing machine. There had to be a sniper to the side of the stage and out of sight just in case something went wrong. Roy had a tiger accident a few years ago and the show was cancelled. The Frontier casino and hotel was just recently demolished. |
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| Aqua Letifer | Dec 27 2007, 08:06 AM Post #11 |
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ZOOOOOM!
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I suppose it's like LOL cats, only the humor's more fierce. And stripey. |
| I cite irreconcilable differences. | |
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| QuirtEvans | Dec 27 2007, 08:13 AM Post #12 |
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I Owe It All To John D'Oh
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We've been to that zoo many times. The latest news reports suggest that the teenager who died may have climbed a fence and dangled a leg over to taunt the tiger, and that the tiger may have grabbed his leg to use as its escape route. If that proves to be true, he's a late entry into the Darwin Award stakes for 2007. |
| It would be unwise to underestimate what large groups of ill-informed people acting together can achieve. -- John D'Oh, January 14, 2010. | |
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| ivorythumper | Dec 27 2007, 10:02 AM Post #13 |
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I am so adjective that I verb nouns!
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His life wasn't a total waste. At least he served as an appetizing last meal for the tiger. |
| The dogma lives loudly within me. | |
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| Free Rider | Dec 27 2007, 10:05 AM Post #14 |
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Fulla-Carp
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:lol: |
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| Phlebas | Dec 27 2007, 10:14 AM Post #15 |
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Bull-Carp
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...and there's also this, too.
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Random FML: Today, I was fired by my boss in front of my coworkers. It would have been nice if I could have left the building before they started celebrating. FML The founding of the bulk of the world's nation states post 1914 is based on self-defined nationalisms. The bulk of those national movements involve territory that was ethnically mixed. The foundation of many of those nation states involved population movements in the aftermath. When the only one that is repeatedly held up as unjust and unjustifiable is the Zionist project, the term anti-semitism may very well be appropriate. - P*D | |
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