Posted on 12/28/2007 5:54:37 AM PST by Mr. Brightside
Cops: Tiger Attack Victim Helped Friend
By JORDAN ROBERTSON and MARCUS WOHLSEN
Associated Press Writers
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -
The last minutes of a 17-year-old boy's life were spent trying to save his friend from a brutal tiger mauling at the San Francisco Zoo, only to have the animal turn on him, police and family members said.
Carlos Sousa Jr. and his friend's brother desperately tried to distract the 350-pound Siberian tiger, but the big cat instead came after Sousa.
"He didn't run. He tried to help his friend, and it was him who ended up getting it the worst," the teen's father, Carlos Sousa Sr., said Thursday after meeting with police.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nat-gen/2007/dec/28/122801861.html
So he succeeded in saving his friends life? That’s heroic.
Duh.. empty moat... tigers are great swimmers. It damn well had better have been empty...
Marian Roth-Cramer recalled the day she and her son, who was 4 or 5, visited the tiger exhibit in 1997.
"My son had his hands on the metal bar," said the San Francisco woman, a children's dance and family programs coordinator at a branch of the YMCA. "All of a sudden, I saw the tiger leap over the moat, put a paw on the dirt (and hang on). I screamed and grabbed my son."
The animal slid away. She turned to a zookeeper and asked if he'd seen what she had. His reply: "She always does that. She hates my guts."
She wrote a letter to David Anderson, the zoo director at the time, about the incident and canceled her membership. She said she never got a reply.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/27/MN39U4TQ5.DTL
The tigers may have enjoyed water in the moat. But I think the point of water in the moat is it would prevent the cat from being able to ~jump~ up the wall.
Thanks for the picture to make my point.
I doubt whether a tiger could jump a 16 foot wall if it is launching from a 6 foot moat.
Most Olympic high jumpers could not leap as high if they were forced to jump from the bottom of a swimming pool.
I suspect you’re both correct about the real reason for the water.
Funny how the news organizations first indicated the wall was 20ft, then 18ft, and now 12.5ft.
The wall was only 12.5 feet high? Well, no wonder the tiger got out!!!! I’ve seen a coyote hop a 10 foot block fence with no problem—they’re MUCH smaller than a tiger & are not supposed to be particularly good climbers.
If you stretch a full-grown tiger out from tippy toe to tippy toe, that’s got to be at least eight feet.
Sheesh.......
If any tiger had previously escaped, I might agree. However, we still don’t know all the facts and there remains the possibility the three victims may have contributed to their own demise.
Why is that funny?
Actually, the article says that a full grown Siberian tiger can stretch 12 feet.
That’s pretty damning.
Moat??? Tigers can swim...
“Actually, the article says that a full grown Siberian tiger can stretch 12 feet.”
The wall is 12.5 feet high, a full-grown tiger can reach 12 feet stretched out. Did no one put these two pieces of information together before opening the exhibit?
The zoo better have good liability insurance.
I don’t care whether the boys taunted the tiger or not.
The enclosure should have kept the tiger in. And the zoo is at fault for not doing it.
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