Posted on 12/29/2007 5:49:01 PM PST by Mr. Brightside
ZOO THOUGHT TIGER ATTACK WAS FAKE
By EMMETT BERG in San Francisco and JAMES FANELLIin New York San Francisco
An employee barricaded in the zoo's Terrace Café made the first 911 call at 5:07 p.m., saying that zoo patron Amritpal "Paul" Dhaliwal, 19, was frantically screaming outside. The employee told the dispatcher that Dhaliwal claimed a lone man "was bitten by an exotic animal." The dispatcher relaying the call added, "They do not see any animal missing."
Police were immediately dispatched, but subsequent police logs and fire logs showed skepticism over the attack.
"Zoo personnel dispatch now say there are two males who the zoo thinks . . . are 800 [mentally unstable] and making something up . . . but one is in fact bleeding from the back of the head," a dispatch reads.
As more information trickled out in the subsequent minutes, police and fire crews learned a tiger was loose and the zoo grounds were not safe. By the time responders reached the zoo at 5:12 p.m., zookeepers had already begun a lockdown - preventing responders from getting onto the grounds. The logs detail the fire crew saying the zoo security had called a "Code One, meaning they can't let anyone into the zoo."
They finally got in between 5:15 and 5:18 p.m. The logs indicate that fire crews and police began spotting the fatal feline, but were "waiting for the guys with the tranquilizer gun."
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
The Zoo must be staffed with professional amateurs.
The zoo is going to lose BIG on this one.
They may soon find that there are criminal charges against zoo officials.
related:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1945652/posts
(a couple of comments)
They must have lawyers lined up around the block begging to represent them on contingency.
When John Edwards drops out of the race shortly, he can represent the victims families. I see a new Riviera beach house in his future.
Yep, I’m sure that the ambulance chasers were on the scene before the local news camera crews were there.
A whole lotta people are going to be in big trouble.
They should feed the zZookeeper to the tiger.
I wonder how much damage was done to the injured brother in the six minutes that the police were held at bay by the zoo officials.
The zoo might as well start looking for new homes for all their animals. They are toast.
and all the while Tatiana was gnawing on them. ack!
I am waiting for equally mindless defenders of the San Fran Zoo to show up and give you directions for the doorway outta' here!
One does hope the Zoo has some defenders, else maybe PETA and the other "animal lovers" have been right to criticize the place (of course they just want to turn the animals loose to wander the city).
Stupid thought that ~ allow San Fran a Zoo ~ the place IS A ZOO ~ a human zoo. No other animals need apply.
I think if you look up stories about that mass murder the other day where the daughter killed her family you'd find advertisements for coffins and funerals to show up.
Look at the calendar....Was this cat in heat? had it been again enticed by "Tony the Tiger" and then denied?? Was the cat on meds?
The MONEY is in the breeding.
Sorry...just think there's more to this than the zoo is saying. This is an agressive female tiger.
To quote Chris Rock,
"There are all these people saying, 'that tiger went crazy.' That tiger didn't go crazy! That tiger went TIGER!"
Mark
We live a couple hours’ drive north of SF, and I had been looking forward to taking my little sons to the SF Zoo when they were old enough ... but I strongly suspect the Zoo will be history by that time. I will be astounded if they can keep the zoo open after all the (for once, well-justified!) lawsuits are settled.
The zookeepers must be morons. A house cat can scale a six foot wall. How high can a motivated tiger jump? And can’t most people just look and tell the difference between 12 ft and 18 ft? Good grief.
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