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San Francisco Zoo San Francisco Zoo tiger escape

Discussion in 'United States' started by Zooish, 26 Dec 2007.

  1. NZ Jeremy

    NZ Jeremy Well-Known Member

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    Is it possible that is because it was originally a Lion house..? Can Tigers jump better than Lions..?
     
  2. MARK

    MARK Well-Known Member

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    I have heard this before that Tigers are better jumpers than lions I have also read that some zoos have wider moats for Tigers than lions which would indercate this could be a fact
     
  3. NZ Jeremy

    NZ Jeremy Well-Known Member

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    Hopefully someone will know for sure...

    If the moat don't meet national standards how come the zoo has AZA accreditation..?
     
  4. Ara

    Ara Well-Known Member

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    Yep, it's widely accepted that tigers can leap farther and higher than lions - based on experiments carried out many years ago by the great Carl Hagenbeck, the man who originated the "barless" zoo and was the first to use moats etc.

    When Taronga kept its big cats in pits, the tiger pits were significantly deeper than the lions.
     
  5. snowleopard

    snowleopard Well-Known Member 15+ year member Premium Member

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    The San Francisco Zoo was threatened with losing its accreditation about 3 years ago, after two elephants died and a number of the enclosures were badly in need of an upgrade. I've given a fairly comprehensive review of the zoo under the North American section on the general forum, and I've praised a number of new exhibits that are rather impressive. However, the awful elephant enclosure was shut-down for good, with the surviving elephants transported to a sanctuary, and yet there are a number of antiquated enclosures that should have been torn down decades ago. The lion/tiger house is almost 70 years old and is basically a crumbling joke of an exhibit. Animal rights activists would definitely argue that Taitiana is better off as she is now, rather than have to pace a poorly constructed cage for the next few decades.
     
  6. Monty

    Monty Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    I recon the blokes involved did something shifty. They would not even give their names.

     
  7. NZ Jeremy

    NZ Jeremy Well-Known Member

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    Update:

     
    Last edited by a moderator: 6 Jul 2017
  8. okapikpr

    okapikpr Well-Known Member

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  9. NZ Jeremy

    NZ Jeremy Well-Known Member

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    It wouldn't be the US without a law suit..!
     
  10. okapikpr

    okapikpr Well-Known Member

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    Why the zoo cannot truly be at fault

    It appears that almost one year after the infamous tiger attack, a visitor to the San Francisco Zoo crossed several barriers to end up in a rhino pen. Some people just dont learn....

    SF Zoo visitor cited for jumping into rhino exhibit
     
  11. Buckeye092

    Buckeye092 Well-Known Member

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    If you read some of the comments at the end of the Rhino article, you notice in every comment people are blaming the zoo. One person even goes as far as saying "I'm never visiting the SF Zoo again because its unsafe." How dumb do you have to be to blame the zoo for an idiot jumping TWO fences to get into a rhino enclosure. He obviously didn't fall in, it was all his fault, not the zoos. I'm starting to loose faith in the public, about how they respond to zoo "incidences."
     
  12. Ituri

    Ituri Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    I've just lost faith in the city of San Francisco...
     
  13. Kifaru Bwana

    Kifaru Bwana Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    Perhaps I should copy my remarks made in the LA elephant exhibit discussion here?

    1) No political backbone on behalf of councillors, public administrators or finance commission in the face of any criticism (valid or non-valid).
    2) Lack of expert or informed opinion in public domain. This tends to favour the discussion being hijacked by extremes like the animal welfare activitists or even so-called celebs for a cause (valid or non-valid).
    3) Lack of official public statement stating the real facts.
    4) Inadequate or late official response by AZA Zoo Board in the face of valid/non-valid criticism of one of its respected and accredited institutions.
    5) Fear of litigation or being voted out by public administrators.

    If we do not engage the discussion or perceived dispute on zoo affairs we are condoned to living the lie of the land ...!
     
    Last edited: 10 Dec 2008
  14. Kifaru Bwana

    Kifaru Bwana Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    I should like to add that in this incident we are talking a major infringement or felony on the part of the public. Zoos can not and should not be held accountable for the behaviour or public disorderly offences created and perpetrated by members of the public.

    We should not play to the public nor the media and enforce our zoo public code of conduct on members of the public, i.o.w. zoo visitors, stringently. These people should be removed and persecuted for not observing zoo rules and regulations and in addition endangering the animals on exhibit as well as themselves (I put animals first priority here as barriers are to protected the animals from the public and to then prevent the public from entering the enclosure/exhibit).

    If we were to put totally paid to public not observing these regulations we will enter a police state. Something which can not be prevented, is not preventable ... but which we must and should confront and persecute. The zoo should not be on trail, but the public ... :mad:
     
  15. djaeon

    djaeon Well-Known Member

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    I'm not familiar with the details of this incident, but I think that if anyone decides on their own to jump into an enclosure, it's their own fault if they get hurt, maimed or killed. Not the fault of the zoo at all.
     
  16. okapikpr

    okapikpr Well-Known Member

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    I believe the gentleman involved, who jumped the fences, was with some lady friends at the zoo.
     
  17. okapikpr

    okapikpr Well-Known Member

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  18. Meaghan Edwards

    Meaghan Edwards Well-Known Member

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    Wow, they sure sound like winners.:rolleyes:
     
  19. tigertiger

    tigertiger Well-Known Member

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    I agree completely. Especially in the case of the man climbing the fences to get in--of course the zoo is unsafe and all--I mean, he only had to climb two fences and didn't even get hurt in the end. [/noted sarcasm]
     
  20. tigertiger

    tigertiger Well-Known Member

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    Have you guys seen this yet? These men are getting MEDALS? For what?! Ridiculous comments: S.F. cops tell how they killed raging zoo tiger

    02-03) 20:51 PST -- It was Christmas Day 2007, and San Francisco police Officers Yukio "Chris" Oshita and Scott Biggs were driving slowly down an access road in the San Francisco Zoo.

    Behind them: a bloody tiger enclosure and one dead man, fatally mauled.

    Ahead of them: the Terrace Cafe and the sight of a 243-pound Siberian tiger sitting in front of her next victim, toying with the man as a cat would play with a wounded mouse.

    Across the way, Officers Kevin O'Leary and Daniel Kroos had just arrived in their radio car. The man with the tiger was screaming, begging for help.

    Armed only with their .40-caliber handguns, the officers had to figure things out in a heartbeat. Shoot. Don't shoot. Distract the tiger. Wait for help.

    "I never could have imagined having to deal with something like this," Biggs said. "We never got any instruction on dealing with wild animals when we were at the academy."

    Moments later, Tatiana left her victim and turned her attention on the four officers, leaving them with one choice. They responded with a deadly hail of gunfire, and the Siberian tiger soon was dead.

    For their actions, Oshita, 31, Biggs, 37, O'Leary, 40, and Kroos, 29, will receive the San Francisco Police Department's highest award for bravery - the gold medal of valor - at a ceremony tonight at City Hall.

    The officers have said nothing in public until now because of investigations into the incident as well as pending lawsuits. But, as the department prepares to honor the men, three of the four agreed to tell the story of what happened that night at the zoo.

    Just before dusk that day, 17-year-old Carlos Souza Jr. and two brothers, Paul Dhaliwal, 19, and Kulbir Dhaliwal, 23, were at the tiger enclosure when Tatiana turned, leaped over the retaining wall and went on the attack. Zoo officials have said the men must have taunted or somehow bothered the tiger. An investigation has never conclusively proven that.

    The tiger killed Souza immediately, then chased Paul Dhaliwal about 300 yards to the zoo's Terrace Cafe and was in the process of attacking him when the officers arrived.

    Plainclothes partners Oshita and Biggs were in one car, and uniformed officers O'Leary and Kroos were in another. The first calls came in just after 5 p.m. The initial radio broadcast indicated that a zoo patron had been bitten by "an exotic animal."

    "I thought it must have been some other animal, something small, like just a small bite that needed to be handled," Oshita said.

    In any case, they responded to the zoo as quickly as possible and learned immediately that a tiger was on the loose.

    O'Leary and Kroos (who declined to be interviewed for this story) went to the zoo entrance and used their loudspeaker to order patrons out of the zoo.
    A gruesome discovery

    Oshita and Biggs went to the tiger enclosure, where they found Souza. It was not a pretty sight, the officers recalled. Gruesome, in fact, they said.

    The officers' faces went white at the memory of the scene.

    Dusk had settled by now, and they knew a man-killing tiger was on the loose, with plenty of places to hide.

    A zoo employee called to them. The tiger, he told them, had gone to the area by the Terrace Cafe, where it had attacked another person.

    The officers, with the employee in the backseat, drove slowly down a service road toward the cafe. They looked left and right, up and down, for signs of the tiger.

    They were not thinking about confronting or killing the tiger, they said. Their mission was to find and help victims and to secure the area.

    That all changed when they came upon the scene at the Terrace Cafe.

    At about the same time, O'Leary and Kroos reached the cafe from a different direction. All four officers saw the same thing: Dhaliwal was sitting on the ground, legs extended in front of him, bleeding from the head and screaming for help. Tatiana was sitting in front of him, looking at him.

    The officers - 35 yards away - yelled, whistled and tried to get the tiger's attention. They wanted the animal to move away from her victim.

    The noise startled the tiger; she reared up on her back legs and started swatting at Dhaliwal, toying with him.
    Tiger coming on fast

    The officers could not shoot for fear of hitting the young man. They made more noise.

    Finally, the big cat turned and looked at Oshita, who was standing with his partner in front of their car.

    "She looked angry," Oshita said.

    The tiger started toward the officers. By now, O'Leary and Kroos had made their way to the left of Oshita and Biggs.

    Oshita said the tiger moved quickly - not running; more of a lope. Whatever, it was fast.

    Oshita, who had his .40-caliber semiautomatic pistol drawn, fired three rounds. Two shots hit the tiger in the chest. Oshita said he could see the tiger's hair part, as if someone had blown on it.

    "The bullets didn't even slow her down," Oshita said. "She just had this look on her face like, 'Are you kidding me?' "

    And Tatiana kept coming.

    The officers retreated to their car. To their horror, they saw that the passenger side window was open and they had no time to roll it up. The tiger had a place to attack.

    O'Leary and Kroos started firing from their positions to the left. Oshita, in the passenger seat with the open window, leaned out of the car and fired twice more at the oncoming tiger.

    Biggs, making a split-second decision, jumped out, ran around to the front of the vehicle where bullets had finally caused Tatiana to stumble to the ground. Worried that the big cat would leap up for one last attack, Biggs shot her once more.

    Tatiana, the biggest, baddest, most majestic cat in the house, turned and lay her head down. She was dead. The time was 5:27 p.m.

    It was later determined that Tatiana had been hit seven times: twice in the head and five times in the chest.

    The officers said they have no lingering emotional issues related to their action.

    O'Leary, who saw combat as a soldier during the first Gulf War, said war was worse than the tiger attack. But he conceded that what happened that night at the zoo was surreal and difficult to digest because the fight was different. In war, it's soldier vs. soldier. But you never know what a tiger will do or even how to kill the beast, he said.

    "No one wanted to shoot that tiger," Biggs said. "She was a beautiful animal. It was just an unfortunate situation. We didn't have any choice."