Posted on 12/30/2007 12:48:07 PM PST by gitmo
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — As more details emerged about the chaos during a tiger's attack of three young men at the San Francisco Zoo, family and friends mourned the teenager who was killed.
About 100 people gathered Saturday outside the San Jose home of Carlos Sousa Jr.'s grandmother for a vigil. Many held candles in cups and were silent as Sousa's father stood on the doorstep in front of two enlarged photos of him and his son.
"I would like to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart for coming here and honoring my son Carlos. My son Carlos was a very good boy" said Carlos Sousa Sr., choking back tears. "I can see that he had a lot of friends here. I want you all to remember the good things that he did and carry this with you in your hearts for as long as you can."
A 350-pound Siberian tiger killed Sousa Jr. and seriously hurt two of his friends after escaping from its enclosure. Paul Dhaliwal, 19, and Kulbir Dhaliwal, 23, were released from the hospital Saturday. The brothers suffered severe bite and claw wounds.
Police said Sousa Jr.'s neck was slashed while the teen tried to scare away the tiger after it attacked Kulbir Dhaliwal. Sousa, 17, died at the scene just before the zoo's closing time on Christmas Day.
A funeral for Sousa is scheduled for Jan. 8 in San Jose.
Police radio transcripts revealed a chaotic scene at the San Francisco Zoo as zookeepers scrambled to locate and sedate the animal, and medics refused to enter until they knew they would be safe.
Zoo employees also initially questioned whether early reports of the attack were coming from a mentally unstable person, according to an 18-page log of communications from police dispatchers to officers and emergency responders at the scene.
According to the logs, zoo personnel initially told police that two men reporting the escaped tiger might be mentally disturbed and "making something up," though one was bleeding from the back of the head.
Two minutes later, at 5:10 p.m., zoo employees reported that a tiger was loose and, at 5:13 p.m., the zoo was being evacuated and locked down as fire department responders arrived.
For several minutes, medics refused to enter the zoo until it had been secured. Meanwhile, zookeepers were trying to round up what they initially believed to be multiple tigers.
"Zoo personnel have the tiger in sight and are dealing with it," reads a 5:17 p.m. note on the transcript.
The transcript does not indicate when police or emergency responders entered, but by 5:20 p.m. medics had located one victim with a large puncture hole to his neck. The tiger was still loose.
As medics attended to the victim, an officer spotted the tiger sitting down before it fled and began attacking another victim, according to the logs.
At 5:27 p.m., less than 20 minutes after the initial reports were made, the officers began firing, killing the tiger.
It was unclear whether letting police and medics into the zoo sooner would have altered the outcome of the attacks or subjected emergency responders to greater danger with a tiger on the loose.
It has become increasingly clear that the tiger climbed over the wall of its enclosure, which at just under 12 1/2 high was about 4 feet below the recommended minimum for U.S. zoos.
Zoo officials said the zoo would reopen Thursday.
In the wake of the attack, the Oakland Zoo across San Francisco Bay plans to raise the height of the walls surrounding its tiger enclosure.
The concrete wall and chain-link fence surrounding the two tigers range from 13 1/2 feet to 16 feet, and the zoo is deciding how much higher to raise the pen, said Oakland Zoo executive director Joel Parrott. Its tiger exhibit includes a female Bengal tiger weighing 230 pounds and a female Siberian-Bengal mix weighing 305 pounds.
Can you say “lawsuit”?
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with EMT’s waiting until they knew the zoo was secure. What puzzles me is what happened between the time zoo officials were “dealing with it” and the time the tiger was shot.
One of the animals I was really attached to when I was a zookeeper escaped a few years after I had moved on. She was a very playful Russian Brown Bear. They had to shoot her ... she was a very powerful animal. I’ve often thought I could have gotten her back into her enclosure without harming her.
But there were other animals I would have shot before getting anywhere near them.
Not really. In less than 10 minutes the victim was found and paramedics were rendering aid. The cat was killed in less than 20 minutes. During this time they found the cat and EMS and police were on the scene. While confusion I’m sure, I don’t see chaos.
I think they thought they had multiple cats loose at first.
I’ve often wondered why the big zoos do not keep water in the moats in those big cats and bear cages. Makes sense that the water, at least deep enough to keep the animals from touching bottom, would keep them from getting traction, to jump and climb up the wall.
Looks like carelessness on the part of the zoo management all around the country where they have stopped putting water in the moats.
The place was a real zoo there for a while.
Shortening the tiger's legs would work, too....;^)
I'll buy that argument.
Actually, I would think they were crazy if they did not make sure the animals had been secured.
The cops shot and killed the tiger less than 20 minutes after the first call came in. And the scene was chaotic? Gee, who woulda guessed. In the past, whenever a dangerous animal was loose in a zoo, the scene was very tranquil and the situation was resolved in an orderly manner within the first thirty seconds. If only these three wonderful lads had tormented the tiger while it was still light out.
I’m surprised they were able to find the tiger in 20 minutes.
The moat is part of the tigers’ habitat. There’s two areas for the tigers to roam. An elevated island area surrounded by a moat. The moat is there so the tigers can’t jump across it to get to the spectator viewing area. But the tigers can also go down in the moat and walk around.
Your bear....Were you able to secure the place and put the bear down in less than 20 minutes? It just sounds like a lot of people got control of the situation in a very short time, before others killed. JMOT
Tigers are excellent swimmers, and when you have claws like that, traction probably isn't an issue.
The one single time in my life I actually felt the ‘prey’ instinct go off (as in ‘I am prey’) was when a tiger choose to look at me for a bit at the Edinburgh Zoo. I do assume if I had been that close to other large cat predators the sensation might have been very similar.
It was quite disconcerting, though also illuminating, in a way.
I don’t know how he wouldn’t have been pulled down but it sure reads like the cat might have got a grip on something with her front paws and climbed up the wall with her back ones.
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