Tiger Kills One, Wounds Two
A Siberian tiger escaped from a San Fransisco zoo yesterday, killing one visitor and wounding two others. Zoo officials have no idea how the tiger was able to escape.
The tiger was already infamous: last year she – Tatiana – attacked a zookeeper. After they, they kept a close eye on the tiger, but she was able to break out of his enclosure nonetheless.
The three people attacked were young men (in their 20s). “The attack occurred just after the 5 p.m. closing time, on the east end of the 125-acre grounds,” AOL reports. The two wounded individuals “were listed in critical but stable condition at San Francisco General Hospital. John Brown, an emergency room physician, told the San Francisco Chronicle that they suffered deep bites and claw cuts to their heads and upper bodies.”
One gets the impression that they had to fight for their lives.
The 300-pound tiger attacked the first victim right outside of her enclosure which “is surrounded by a 15-foot-wide moat and 20-foot-high walls.” Four officers who responded to the alarm that one of the animals had escaped came across the young man’s body.
At the moment they say the first victim, they also saw the second victim lying on the ground, some 300 yards ahead. He was bleeding and didn’t move. Suddenly, however, Tatiana attacked him again. The officials walked towards her, and aimed their guns at the tiger. She looked at them, started walking towards them, when the officials shot her. Several of them hit her.
After that they saw the third victim.
The zoo has four other tigers. It’s of the utmost importance that they find out how Tatiana escaped. One visitor already died, and that on Christmas day. The family of the victim should sue the zoo; the zoo’s responsible for this. Especially considering the tiger’s past.
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I have lived in SF for quite a while. I have been to the SF Zoo and found it to be depressing (very foggy and cold). Maybe Tatiana rebelled against being holed up in wonderful San Francisco’s zoo?
lol, quite possibly.
But her rebellion cost at least one person his life.
Do not tease the tiger, for you are meaty and look like an appetizer.
20 year olds attacked by a Tiger….hmmm what were they doing to provoke the Tiger? 20 year olds at the zoo on Christmas at the end of the day. Tigers crush with their jaws …they don’t slash throats. Is there any video footage of this Tiger jumping a 15 foot -20 foot wall? What do the survivors say…were they trying to free the tiger? I’ve always wanted to let the animals out, and put stupid people in the cages, to let them see how it feels. The tiger shouldn’t have been killed by the good ol’ SFPD…they knew what they were responding to at the Zoo. They should’ve been prepared to tranquilize the animal not shoot it. The idiot who states "well if a tiger is attacking me, I’m not thinking about anything but survival so I’ll kill it". Hey, you’re a Police Officer "responding to a known threat"….use a tranquilizer. It’s not the Tiger’s fault that it’s a Tiger. Zoo incidents are always stupid peoples’ fault.
It’s not the tiger’s fault that it’s a tiger, but it’s certainly not the fault of police that they’re not big-game vets either. They don’t carry trank rifles and they’re not trained to handle aggressive four-legged carnivores of proven lethality.
Bad kitty…
Reminds me of a camping trip two summers ago when we were at a reservoir (Cougar Reservoir of course) deep in the Williamette National Forest not all that far from the flatlands as the crow flies, but within spitting distance of the local wilderness. We had pulled the camp trailer onto a pad just a stone’s throw from the waters edge and had enjoyed the day swimming, fishing, sunbathing, and watching the boom boats piloted by various drunken college types. It was a near perfect day for sun and calm water with little wind and zero cloud cover. Bar-b-qued up a mess-o-fish with fried potatoes, white wine, and salad, and ate them for dinner sitting around a nice campfire. I noticed there were no mosquitoes. Like I said it was a near perfect day. We went to bed a little on the early side so we could read some before lights out, the drunken college types having long since passed out or possibly having made the drive to the nearest bar some thirty miles away in the only real bar on the main road between Eugene and Bend. The night got real quiet and dark as usual when deep in the big Doug firs and assorted old growth cedars. I was almost asleep barely dozing, but was suddenly awakened when the dog sat bolt upright. This was a bit unusual, the dog was aware of many things in the night, and would awake me with an easy low pitched growl when she thought I needed to address something going bump in the night, but had similarly reacted only in the desert mountains when the camp was invaded by a few damnable hungry and howling coyotes (they cleaned out her food dish and tipped over the stove). Like I said, this was different. So I woke up Cindy, and who was already wide awake, and she wondered out loud who the idiot was that hadn’t closed the door (me). The dog shivered a moment before I heard the soft rumbling purr of a very large cat. Now I have house cats and I know what they sound like when turned on and the sound of this wilderness cat was unmistakable. It was turned on…never a good sign in the back country. I focused on the where-abouts of the 20 gauge, but decided it required to many steps to find it, and then to find the shells to load it. No…the situation required some quick thinking, so I clicked on the outside light and highlighted the beast only a few feet from the door. Jeebus…it was a rather large cat too, a male maybe three years old. Now I’ve backpacked all over the Oregon back country year in and year out until the thought of a heavy pack hurt worst than the actuality, but I had never seen a cat that close before. In fact, I’ve only seen maybe a half dozen big cats in more than 20 years of wilderness trekking, and those ones always ran away once they sighted me. Fortunately this one was afraid of the light, and crashed away into the underbrush yowling all the way. I took the opportunity to close the main door. I remember Cindy thanking me…
So that was my last cougar experience. Not exactly the same as running into a zoo tiger, but close enough for the Oregon wilds. Since then the dog has taken to sleeping between me and Cindy whenever we camp. I can’t say that I blame her.