Tony the Tiger, when asked about the mauling, said,
"San Francisco is chock full of frosted flakes.
Tatiana was just a bit confused."
Been there for feeding time.
Sound of little bunny bones crunching.
Tony the Tiger, when asked about the mauling, said,
"San Francisco is chock full of frosted flakes.
Tatiana was just a bit confused."
{Snip}
"The tiger ate her hand. It slowly proceeded to eat the rest of her arm."
That's how Vikram Chari described the horrifying spectacle that he and his 6-year-old son witnessed at the San Francisco Zoo on the Friday before Christmas, when a Siberian tiger named Tatiana attacked her keeper.
For those who work with wild animals, the bloody assault is a reminder of what they already know but don't always remember: The creatures they've become so attached to could kill them at any moment.
"If you're not afraid of it, it will hurt you," said animal behaviorist Dave Salmoni. "You can't get the wild out of a cat because he's in a cage."
Tatiana's 46-year-old victim, whom the zoo won't name but sources identified as Lori Komejan, is still in San Francisco General Hospital. The tiger, a 350-pounder that was born in the Denver Zoo in June 2003 and arrived in San Francisco last December, is still on display in her outdoor exhibit, although the indoor Lion House is now closed.
The Lion House is where the mauling occurred. At 2:15 p.m. on the afternoon of Dec. 22, just after the public feeding with at least 50 patrons watching, Tatiana turned on Komejan. Chari and his son were standing 8 to 10 feet away, focused on another tiger named Tony, when they heard a shriek.
"The right arm was in the tiger's mouth," said Chari, 40, who lives in San Francisco and owns a telecom business. "The left arm was just being held there (in the claws) and the right arm was being eaten. She was screaming and flailing away."
He said three men tried to yank Komejan, a gifted artist, from Tatiana's grasp. The tiger pulled back, methodically devouring the arm. Finally, a zoo employee grabbed a long pole and jabbed it at Tatiana's head. The tiger let go.
"I think most of the right arm doesn't exist anymore," Chari said. "What was left was hanging in strings. The tiger didn't eat in a very clean way."
After Komejan was released, he said, she tried to touch her right arm with her left hand as she lay writhing on the ground.
"It looked like she was trying to stop the pain, except that there was no arm where she had reached," Chari said.
Zoo officials are investigating the mauling of Komejan, who started working there in 1997, and won't discuss it, beyond issuing a statement mentioning "lacerations sustained to the arms." S.F. General won't disclose her condition, at her family's request.
Meanwhile, friends of Komejan -- a single mother with one daughter -- wait and worry.