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Human Role Not Ruled Out in Tiger Attack
MyWay/Drudge ^ | 12-26-2007 | robertson

Posted on 12/27/2007 10:18:04 AM PST by wardaddy

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The big cat exhibit at the San Francisco Zoo was cordoned off as a crime scene Wednesday as investigators tried to determine whether a 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 300-pound 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.

(AP) Tatiana, a female Siberian tiger that killed one person and injured two others, is seen in the lion... Full Image

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."

(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.myway.com ...


TOPICS: Local News
KEYWORDS: humancompassion; maul; sf; tiger; zoo
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To: ken5050
Are they illegals?

What?????

You think they were "taunting the tigers that Americans won't taunt?"

61 posted on 12/27/2007 11:05:38 AM PST by RetiredArmyMajor
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To: mdittmar

Size relative to a 6-ft (2-m) man:that's a 660lb one,they are big kitties

I had wondered if 350 pounds was not really a 'big' number at all for a tiger... I thought I remembered that they get into the several hundred pound range. Are they slow to mature? are females smaller? Or was this cat just not a very big one?

62 posted on 12/27/2007 11:06:11 AM PST by HairOfTheDog
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To: wardaddy

I’m beginning to ask if all this coverage is meant to exonerate the tiger somehow. As if the liberal media can’t accept that the tiger chose to attack the men so therefore they have to find some way to blame the victims.

As Rush says “A tiger is a tiger.”

Whether the men provoked the attack or even helped the tiger out, they were stupid for doing it and the tiger did what tigers do. Why this is still a news story on the third day mystifies me.


63 posted on 12/27/2007 11:06:11 AM PST by Tall_Texan (No Third Term For Bill Clinton!)
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To: Tall_Texan
Why this is still a news story on the third day mystifies me.

I think it's a very interesting news story and I hope it ~doesn't~ fade before we learn what really happened. People don't get attacked by tigers in American cities all that often.

64 posted on 12/27/2007 11:07:51 AM PST by HairOfTheDog
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To: Red in Blue PA
Humans never wrong; animals always wrong

No, more like: "Humans can be wrong, animals can't be wrong." Animals live under a different moral code than people do. Nobody bats an eye when a tiger bites someone's face off because that's what tigers do (nature specials notwithstanding).

But anyone who puts a brute animal's life above that of a fellow human being, no matter how wretched, has their priorities seriously screwed up.
65 posted on 12/27/2007 11:08:52 AM PST by Antoninus (Republicans who support Rudy owe Bill Clinton an apology.)
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To: ken5050

..and the first woman fire chief

66 posted on 12/27/2007 11:10:29 AM PST by Doogle (USAF.68-73..8th TFW Ubon Thailand..never store a threat you should have eliminated))
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To: Gator101

yeah I heard that theory too,in any case, I doubt to other two buddies will be chatty about what went down...since they may face charges


67 posted on 12/27/2007 11:13:08 AM PST by Doogle (USAF.68-73..8th TFW Ubon Thailand..never store a threat you should have eliminated))
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To: HairOfTheDog
I had wondered if 350 pounds was not really a 'big' number at all for a tiger...

I was wondering that as well. Perhaps 350 is the optimum weight for a tiger to jump high...fully grown but not packing on the extra "zoo-pounds" that would keep her from being able to get the most out of a jump. We have 2 cats, brother and sister. The female is much smaller and can easily out-jump her portly brother.

68 posted on 12/27/2007 11:14:05 AM PST by Gator101 (Don't tase me, Bro!)
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To: HairOfTheDog
Ok..I guess if a tranquilizer was out of the question --then I agree they would have to shoot it...... I was mostly responding to the people who said that the tiger should of been dead already because of last years incident. Tigers are caged for a reason..... because they are not people friendly.
On the other hand, if I find out that this kid who the tiger was standing over let the tiger out then I might change my mind.
69 posted on 12/27/2007 11:14:07 AM PST by Fawn (Will a REAL CONSERVATIVE CANDIDATE please enter the race!!)
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To: RetiredArmyMajor

OMG. they were illegals? I have to rethink this whole thing again.


70 posted on 12/27/2007 11:15:19 AM PST by Fawn (Will a REAL CONSERVATIVE CANDIDATE please enter the race!!)
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To: wardaddy

I notice the word “human” showing up a lot in media these days, rather than “people”, “kids”, “zoo keepers”, “somebody”, etc. “Human involvement” is slightly-veiled, and slowing-encroaching animal-lover and guilt-ridden-human-speak for “bad, evil, homosapien activity”. It’s almost phyla and class species-speak meant to sound clinical and keep “humans” at no better than par with lions and tigers and bears, oh my.


71 posted on 12/27/2007 11:16:41 AM PST by hollywood (Stay on topic, please.)
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To: ken5050
Are they illegals?

I don't know.
They didn't release the names of the other 'victims'.

I'm wondering if they were dangling poor Carlos over the moat or was Carlos showing off. I also think that there were more than just three of them... they only caught three of them because they were too injured to get away.

Lots of suspicious looking stuff going on here:

Something fishy about the whole story.
Was Carlos a participant/instigator or was he a hapless victim? Was he thrown to the tiger or dangled by the other two?
72 posted on 12/27/2007 11:17:11 AM PST by Bon mots
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To: hollywood

“... and slowly-encroaching ...”


73 posted on 12/27/2007 11:17:47 AM PST by hollywood (Stay on topic, please.)
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To: Fawn

I agree that if we find out these kids definitely were involved in taunting the tiger, my sympathies for them and the tiger will be even more conflicted.

But just because a situation is emotionally complex doesn’t mean we have to try very hard to stay firmly rooted in reality. Cops don’t have as much time to react as you just had in reading this post.

They had to shoot it. It’s not the cops fault the tiger was loose, but that’s the situation they were called to solve.


74 posted on 12/27/2007 11:18:23 AM PST by HairOfTheDog
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To: Antoninus

Re: But anyone who puts a brute animal’s life above that of a fellow human being, no matter how wretched, has their priorities seriously screwed up.

So Jeffrey Dahmer’s life is more valuabe than that of a rare tiger???

One of the most ludicrous things I have ever heard.


75 posted on 12/27/2007 11:19:10 AM PST by Red in Blue PA (Truth : Liberals :: Kryptonite : Superman)
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To: wardaddy
I get your point: humans are worth more than animals and, b/c there are some who are mourning the loss of their kid, we should show some respect.

Personally, I'm holding out to learn what the official word is on what happened, but if it turns out that the victim was acting out a certain type of cruelty by taunting and teasing a caged animal and then got killed by that same animal? The part of me that believes in karmic justice, loves animals and hates those who are cruel to animals will have a hard time finding sympathy. Boys will be boys, but tigers tend to be tigers.

76 posted on 12/27/2007 11:21:35 AM PST by GBA ( God Bless America!)
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To: ßuddaßudd

I have a 15-20lb female “outside cat” that routinely leaps 5-8 feet onto tree branches. I think a tiger could do that.

I once made eye contact through a glass window with a tiger at the Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World. It looked at me, narrowed it’s eyes then got up and trotted over and peed right in front of me. Lesson learned? Tigers are sensitive to challenges


77 posted on 12/27/2007 11:24:15 AM PST by Skip Ripley
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To: Raebie

NO...it just escaped it’s area (door was left open)....and it was wandering fields....the owner begged the FWC (Florida Wildlife Commission) to let him retrieve the tiger when they saw it (since he could walk up to it and put a leash on him and lead him home) and they promised they would. But, the kid killed it.


78 posted on 12/27/2007 11:24:56 AM PST by Fawn (Will a REAL CONSERVATIVE CANDIDATE please enter the race!!)
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To: HairOfTheDog
Females are smaller,at 350 that cat would be 200lbs more than I weigh.

The two kids know what happened.

My bet is the lawyers are telling them not to talk,might hurt the lawsuit.

And to everyone else,this is an interesting story,the cops were right,no animal is worth a human life,if these kids were tauting a tiger they were stupid.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

P.S. I have a 20lb cat named Scratch,I gave him that name for a reason,when he could fit in the palm of my hand,I never make him mad;)

79 posted on 12/27/2007 11:25:32 AM PST by mdittmar (May God watch over those who serve,and have served,to keep us free)
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To: The KG9 Kid

“I bet the policemen who shot the animal see tigers in their sleep, though.”

I’d like to be a fly on the wall the first time the cat jumps on the bed...


80 posted on 12/27/2007 11:26:29 AM PST by PLMerite ("Unarmed, one can only flee from Evil. But Evil isn't overcome by fleeing from it." Jeff Cooper)
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