Tiger Kills Man at S.F. Zoo

fariepari

sori guys, x tau nk masuk bod mana yg seswai


SAN FRANCISCO - 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 brothers who also were visiting the zoo 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.

Sy Montgomery, a naturalist and author whose books include "Spell of the Tiger," said she thinks such a jump is possible. Not every tiger could do it, she said, "but like human beings, every creature has its own amazing athletes."

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 Manuel 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, 19- and 23-year-old brothers from San Jose, 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 recover fully.

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.

The first attack happened right outside the tiger's enclosure

deaf4ever

ni dahsyat ni..
apa aku baca kan, waktu polis empat orang tu mula2 sampai,  dorang nampak lelaki kedua tu tengah duduk mengerang kesakitan, lepas tu darah semua tengah memancut dari kepala dia dah..
harimau tu tengah duduk kat sebelah lelaki tu... tak buat apa2 dah, harimau tu cuma duduk bersantai je..

so bila polis tu sampai je harimau tu terus baham lagi sekali lelaki kedua tu, tu yang polis pekik2 then harimau tu pusing nak serang polis lak then polis tembak..

tapi korang bayangkan kalo korang lelaki kedua tu, kawan dah mati kena baham, diri sendiri lak dah tersembur darah satu kepala, dah tak larat nak lari, abis tu harimau tu lak saja je duk sebelah

deaf4ever

tapi serious bebual, cantik betul si Tatiana ni...

fariepari

yup..
sayang betul dia mati ek..
aku agak laa, manusia tu jugak yg buat dia marah kot..
sampai keluar dr kandangnye..

ezan80

cian kan dia..mmg cantik..kalau ezan dpt bela ni...

deaf4ever

yang mati tu rupanya nak selamatkan member dia..
last2 dia kena baham , then rimau tu ikut darah kawan2 dia dua tu menitis2 lepas tu attack lagi tu dua...
tapi aku rasa mesti rimau ni kena usik ke ejek ke, tu la dia naik angin dia stunt keluar pagar tu...
anyway, dah discovered pagar tu ada pendek sikit...

Aku interested cerita ni siap follow up tiap2 hari, pasal aku memang suka gi zoo, dan nengok tigers..white tiger paling lawa wa tak bedek..






SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- The last minutes of a 17-year-old boy's life were spent trying to save his friend from a brutal tiger mauling at the San Francisco Zoo, only to have the animal turn on him, police and family members said.
The 350-pound Tatiana, in an undated photo, escaped and killed a visitor Tuesday at the San Francisco Zoo.




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Carlos Sousa Jr. and his friend's brother desperately tried to distract the 350-pound Siberian tiger, but the big cat instead came after Sousa.
"He didn't run. He tried to help his friend, and it was him who ended up getting it the worst," the teen's father, Carlos Sousa Sr., said Thursday after meeting with police.
The heroic portrait of Sousa and a timeline of the dramatic Christmas Day attack emerged as officials revealed that the tiger's escape from its enclosure may have been aided by walls that were well below the height recommended by the accrediting agency for the nation's zoos.
San Francisco Zoo Director Manuel A. Mollinedo acknowledged that the wall around the animal's pen was just 12

deaf4ever

Originally posted by fariepari at 27-12-2007 12:56 PM
yup..
sayang betul dia mati ek..
aku agak laa, manusia tu jugak yg buat dia marah kot..
sampai keluar dr kandangnye..

mula2 yang bijak pandai semua cakap, mustahil rimau ni bleh lompat atau panjat keluar kan..
tapi skarang dah dibuktikan, pagar tembok dia kat zoo tu ada pendek sikit, so mungkin rimau ni betul2 fokus sampai berjaya

deaf4ever

Originally posted by ezan80 at 28-12-2007 10:01 AM
cian kan dia..mmg cantik..kalau ezan dpt bela ni...

kalo bilionaire, boleh la kot, buat satu kawasan besar cam tempat rimau kat zoo..
dah tu, ko nak dia kulit cantik gitu, sihat, nak kena kasi makan yang kualiti, nak kena ada tukang vet jaga kesihatan dia...

kalo tak kesian la rimau ni tinggal tulang je la, aku tak agak rimau tau makan nasik semalam