Posted on 12/25/2007 6:56:38 PM PST by Shermy
SAN FRANCISCO - A tiger escaped its cage at the San Francisco Zoo on Tuesday, killing one person and injuring two others, a newspaper reported.
The tiger was shot, San Francisco Fire Department spokesman Lt. Ken Smith told the San Francisco Chronicle. It was not immediately clear how the tiger escaped.
The zoo, which had been scheduled to close at 5 p.m. PST, was evacuated.
It was unclear whether the victim was a visitor or a zoo worker.
Police officers and firefighters are investigating.
Officials at first worried that four tigers had escaped, but only one escaped its pen, Smith said.
Last December, one of the zoo's tigers mauled a zookeeper during a regular public feeding. The 350-pound animal reached through the cage's iron bars and badly lacerated her arm. The zoo's Lion House was temporarily closed during an investigation.
some updates:
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20071226/D8TP5HSO0.html
-snip-
The Siberian tiger, named Tatiana, was the same giant cat that attacked a zookeeper just about a year ago during a public feeding, said Robert Jenkins, the zoo’s director of animal care and conservation.
-snip-
“There was no way out through the door,” Jenkins said. “The animal appears to have climbed or otherwise leaped out of the enclosure.”
The first attack happened right outside the Siberian’s enclosure - the victim died at the scene. A group of four officers came across his body when they made their way into the dark zoo grounds, Mannina said.
The second victim was about 300 yards away, in front of the Terrace Cafe. The man was sitting on the ground, blood running from gashes in his head and Tatiana sitting next to him.
The cat attacked the man again, Mannina said. The officers approaching the tiger with their handguns. Tatiana moved in their direction and several of the officers fired, killing the animal.
Only then did they see the third victim, who had also been mauled.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/12/26/tiger.attack/index.html
Dr. Eric Isaacs said the two injured men, ages 19 and 23, were in serious but stable condition with multiple lacerations.
“I believe there was probably some blood loss at the zoo, but here they are talking, they are alert, their vital signs are stable at this time,” Isaacs said
He said that both could be released as early as Wednesday
Reports coming out now that the attacked men were specifically targeted by the tiger.
The report is that they were ‘taunting the tiger’.
wow
SF & Twosome Newsom close the zoo and turn it into another bum's nest.
Don’t worry. You are normal. It isn’t funny. Only retards think tigers killing people is funny.
now I find myself wishing the tiger wasn’t killed
The implications would still be that the grotto/moat systems there are only effective if the cats are insufficiently motivated. That is hardly good enough!
2 other victims are not dead and are talking
We have terrorists blowing up people and burning research facilities, yet you think releasing tigers on purpose is out of the question? How odd...
Well this one seems to have been motivated by the taunting! Don’t taunt TIGERS or any animal for that matter!
Please. That’s the most ridiculous paranoid thing ever posted on here, and there is a ton of it.
But are they talking about “taunting the tiger”? The two in the Terrace Cafe were apparently unaware, as were the police that were called when the tiger showed up at the cafe, that there was a dead victim elsewhere. The park had just stopped selling admissions; the folks inside at the time still had until 6 PM to leave. Perhaps others in the park had witnessed the taunting.
maybe. They may have all been together and 2 ran?
I don’t believe if those two at the cafe were taunting the tiger that they will admit it! A witness/observer to the taunting will be the only answer.
Yeah, but they aren’t banned entirely. I won’t rest until tigers are extinct! </sarcasm
I am just imagining the possibility that the tiger was indeed ticked off enough to jump that moat. wow.
Yep. Sufficient motivation does wonders. There are occasional reports of a mom lifting a car off her kid...
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