San Jose father incredulous his son could have taunted deadly tiger (Photo of tiger grotto)

In the wake of reports that police are investigating whether a tiger at the San Francisco Zoo was taunted before attacking a trio of young men, the father of the teen who was killed doesn't think his son would "do such a foolish thing."

"I don't see the proof or the evidence yet," Carlos Sousa Sr. said in a phone interview this morning following a national appearance on "Good Morning America." "But kids are kids and you can't be watching them all the time."

Still, Sousa Sr. said he wanted to find out more information later today about what happened to his 17-year-old son, Carlos Jr., when he is scheduled to meet with a San Francisco police investigator "and get some more facts."

He added: "It could have been one of the other kids. And my kid could have just gotten it the worst."

Sousa Sr. has not yet visited the two other young men - San Jose brothers - in the hospital, and has not heard their account of what happened.

"Right now, I'm in shock," he said. "It's difficult going through this. I don't really feel like doing hospital visits. It's my only son."

Police are reportedly investigating whether one or more of the young men mauled by the tiger may have taunted the animal before its deadly rampage, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Police found a shoe and blood in an area between the gate and the edge of the animal's 25- to 30-foot-wide moat, prompting the possibility that one of the victims dangled a leg or other body part over the edge of the moat, according to the Chronicle. Carlos Jr. had spent Monday with his father and had been expected to be at his mother's for dinner. His parents are divorced. Marilza Sousa had a dinner of black beans and rice waiting for her son.

His parents figured their son - who didn't have a cell phone - was with friends. But they began calling his friends at 10 p.m. Christmas night, but none of them seemed to know where he was.

Carlos Sr. said he didn't know the full names of the other two men injured in the tiger attack that ended when San Francisco police shot and killed Tatiana, a 350-pound Siberian tiger.

Police Chief Heather Fong said Wednesday the department opened a criminal investigation "to see if the tiger was able to get out on its own or whether there was human involvement."

There is no security camera in the area that might have captured what transpired, she said. Officers are interviewing everyone who was at the zoo Christmas night.

"We are not exactly clear on what transpired," said the zoo's director Manuel Mollinedo.

Sometime shortly after 5 p.m., the tiger escaped from her fortified grotto, which is surrounded by a 20-foot-wide concrete moat and a 18-foot-high Mollinedo said he had never seen the tiger "down in the lower moat area," which is not filled with water. . Once free, Tatiana immediately attacked Carlos, who died at the scene.

Police arriving at the scene found Tatiana attacking another man near the zoo's Terrace Cafe, about 300 yards from the large-cat grotto. They hollered for it to stop and then shot it dead when the tiger began to move toward them, Fong said.

Police and hospital officers have not released the names of the two men who were injured in the attack, but KTVU is reporting that all three men are from San Jose.

The two survivors under went hours of surgery to clean their wounds, San Francisco General Hospital's Rochelle Dicker said. Hospital officials said they are most worried about the possibility of infection and have put the young men, reportedly brothers ages 19 and 23, on antibiotics.

But, both men are doing "quite well," she said, crediting the quickness of their arrival to the hospital and their youth with their speedy recovery. Neither should suffer lasting physical effects of the attack, she said.

The zoo was closed Wednesday after the attack, almost exactly a year after Tatiana attacked her keeper during a feeding.

Officials made the decision to close the zoo "out of respect for the victims." It remains closed today.

Investigation into the incident continues. It is the first time that an escaped animal killed a visitor at a zoo accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, officials with the non-profit association said. Mollinedo said he has invited staff members from other zoo accredited by the association to help him review the cat enclosures, which will remain closed until public and animal safety can be insured. He said the rest of the zoo may reopen Thursday.

A statement on the AZA Web site says under the mandatory accreditation standards, the San Francisco Zoo must provide a thorough report of the incident to its independent Accreditation Commission, "which will review it and determine any actions that need to be taken. We will not speculate on what action might be taken until the facts are fully reviewed."

"AZA-accredited zoos are safe. Until this incident, there had not been a visitor fatality resulting from an animal escape at an AZA-accredited zoo. AZA mandatory accreditation standards require safety and emergency protocols that go beyond federal, state or local requirements. Regular safety training and annual emergency drills are required by these mandatory accreditation standards."

But People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals today called on the zoo to close its tiger exhibit.

"There are some species - including tigers - that simply do not belong in captivity because of their extraordinarily complicated physical and psychological needs," PETA captive exotic animal specialist Lisa Wathne said in a letter to Mollinedo. "Scientists at Oxford University have concluded that big cats and other wide-roaming predators become neurotic when they are confined. No 'educational' program is worth sacrificing animals' well-being."

According to the zoo's Web site, the zoo's two Siberian tigers, Tony and Tatiana, lived in an outdoor enclosure near the Lion House. The zoo also has three Sumatran tigers at the west end of the Lion House. Both types of tigers are classified as endangered species.

Tatiana's enclosure was reinforced after the cat's first attack two days before Christmas last year.

In the attack last year, Tatiana seriously injured keeper Lori Komejan's arm during a regular afternoon feeding at the Lion House.

The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health later ruled the zoo was responsible for that incident, blaming poor training and the way the tiger enclosures were designed.

Zoo officials closed the Lion House for renovations and did not open it until September. Tatiana's enclosure, which she shared with Tony, was fortified after the 2006 attack, Jenkins said.

Safety measures can only help so much when dealing with predators such as tigers, said Chris Austria, an animal trainer who has worked with tigers at Marine World in Vallejo and with bears at the San Francisco Zoo. The attacks likely had little to do with hunger, he said.

"San Francisco Zoo has always been very safety-conscious and well-trained," he said. "But when they're working with wild animals, they're very hard to control. When they escape their habitats, they can be very aggressive."

The association's accreditation standards also will require that the San Francisco Zoo provide a thorough report to its independent Accreditation Commission, which will review it and determine any actions that need to be taken. The association sends a team of investigators to inspect accredited facilities once every five years.

The U.S. Department of Agricultural, which regulates some facilities that work with live animals, will also investigate to attack, spokesman Jim Rogers said. The regulations that the department works with aren't specific, saying that outdoor fences less than 8 feet high enclosing dangerous animal like tigers must be approved by an administrator.

Of course the tiger, "chose it's victims." If someone else had been available, the tiger would have chosen them as well or instead.

The tiger was not going be waiting until later when his taunter was available, like later that evening or the next day to attack someone.

I'm not suggesting that the tiger would not attack whomever was "taunting" or attempting to get his attention but they will and have bitten, mauled and killed whomever they find available.

Please state your own degree, while you’re at it. In my experience with mere house cats, they have incredible memories. One of our cats remembers, to this day, the kid who kicked him, and hides whenever he comes to the house with his parents. Another figured out how to open closed doors by getting up on his hind legs and turning the doorknob with his front paws. Animals aren’t always as dumb as people think.

Taunting or not, it should be impossible for a wild and deadly animal to ever have contact with any zoo visitors.

http://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=1116221048&vw=g&b=0&pos=10&p=lion+reunion&fr=yfp-t-501

This lion obviously remembers the two guys who rescued and raised it as a cub before releasing her a year prior to the video. (Really cool vid.)

Cats have higher brain functions and can definitely distinquish between individuals.

So you have "evidence" that tigers have cognitive abilities?

________________

I think it was in Elizabeth Marshall Thomas's The Tribe of Tiger that I read an account of someone bringing a girl with Down Syndrome to see the tigers at a private facility. In the presence of other visitors, the tigers remained relaxed and lounging but when this girl came, the tigers instantly alerted and became predators, staring and prowling.

They can pick out easy victims; any predator does - why not tormenters?

It's a great book, as are any books of Thomas's.

This is a tiger. That is a structure that usually keeps the people out and away from what is probably a very neurotic tiger.

If the people in any way violated the integrity of the barrier (that is, got too near) the tiger would simply get rid of those people.

If that drawing of a tiger is proportional to the enclosure, then I've seen any number of cats of all sizes EASILY leap that high and higher, at will.

Someone should start taking depositions from the designers and wildlife experts behind that design ~

Cats, in general, have tremendous memories. They need that capability so they can retrieve caches of meat they’ve hidden around their range.

by a 20-foot-wide concrete moat and a 18-foot-high Mollinedo

Obviously the Mollinedo was not high enough to hold an enraged Bengal tiger. That must have been fascinating to see.

the father of the teen who was killed doesn't think his son would "do such a foolish thing."

Having had teenaged sons, I wouldn't put anything past them. Not even the best of them.

When the police show up at your front door and tell you that your child is dead, you ARE amazed and in shock. It doesn’t matter right then how he died, you are stunned and not thinking clearly. You won’t be thinking OR talking clearly for quite a while.

Cut the guy some slack.

I would humbly add that no human should sacrifice his or her life to a neurotic 300-400 lb predator. PETA forgot that part.

They hollered for it to stop and then shot it dead when the tiger began to move toward them, Fong said. Fong said she did not know how many shots were fired.

I know how many shots were fired.

All they had.

The film, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, derives its title from a Chinese proverb that describes
a strategy to conceal one's strengths from others to preserve the element of surprise.

As in the film, crouching tigers can jump walls with surprising results.

As much as I am loathe to admit it, I agree with PETA. I am sort of anti-zoo. Wild animals cooped up in small spaces makes me sad for them. If they were born in captivity and they have never known anything else, I guess they don’t miss being wild but some species like tigers may never become acclimatized.

Agree. I was poking fun at PETA. Wild animals are just that - wild. Their natural state is to be free, not in captivity. I never really thought that zoo animals thrived in captivity, though it’s a more comfortable life for them.

So the tiger, after eating Carlos, chases his two acquaintences for 300 yards. That tiger was pretty upset.

Thomas, regardless of how good her books may be, is an anthropologist (studies of humans not animals.)

Latest information (They actually measured the wall!) says that the wall was too short. It was only a little over 12 feet.

Tiger grotto wall shorter than thought, may have contributed to escape and fatal attack

I happen to agree with you. A Mr. Ward of Rochester, New York believed in "stuffed" animals and I believe it's the best way to show them...when they're out of their natural habitat. Anything else is simply "pretend". And the maintenance costs are absurd.

But there's a lot of money in breeding...and so it goes...it's all about money!

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