TIGER BROTHERS HAD SLINGSHOTS

New York Post ^

[Mr. Brightside]

You are at 50-50.

I am 80-20. 80 percent zoo/accrediting organization and 20 percent boys IF it can be proven they were taunting the tiger.

But my position is that if I am taking my family to the zoo, I want the tiger locked up even if there are boys taunting it.

Keep the tiger away from my family. No excuses. Period.

[Mr. Brightside]

No animal left the pit for 67 years. That's substantial evidence that the pit was adequate

The substantial evidence is a dead body, which disproves your theory.

You probably think to O-Rings from the space shuttle Challenger were adequate, don't you? You know, they worked MOST of the time!

[muawiyah]

The guys didn't say it was this particular enclosure. The point they were making about the tiger leaping up and grabbing meat was that Siberian tigers can really leap ~ tough little buggers.

If you look at the zoo map there are a good number of animal enclosures of varying depths WITH NO ROOFS.

[Route66]

If the tiger had attacked your family, I would assign the zoo total liability. Even if your child engaged in taunting or teasing the animal, which is wrong, it is still an entirely different magnitude of responsibility and liability than what these guys did.

However, if I were on a jury hearing this case, and the facts turned out to be as I described, I would assign equal blame. Because of their own deliberate part in this, I don't believe they deserve to become rich as a result of it.

[Spktyr]

Yup. I knew they *had* to assault the tiger to get it to track them for 300-plus-yards.

[muawiyah]

"Taunting" really isn't a good word to use here since tigers usually don't understand English all that way.

Teasing is much better.

On the other hand, even if the tiger was teased, she shouldn't have been able to leap out of the enclosure.

Now if she spoke English that would be a whole 'nuther matter!

[spunkets]

"The substantial evidence is a dead body, which disproves your theory."

Not at all. When you have to use cattle prods, whips, or slingshots to motivate the animal to perform the amazing feat, then the 67 years of containment shows the confinment was adequate.

"You probably think to O-Rings from the space shuttle Challenger were adequate, don't you?"

No. They were not adequate.

[muawiyah]

The shoe in question didn’t belong to any of these guys. It was quite possibly from a previously EATEN visitor, the tiger having forgotten to dispose of all the evidence!

[Mr. Brightside]

Yup. I knew they *had* to assault the tiger to get it to track them for 300-plus-yards.

You don't think that the trail of fresh blood has something to do with it?

[Mr. Brightside]

It is even possible that the tiger planted the slingshots to make the boys look bad.

[muawiyah]

Of course the odor from the dempsy dumpster in back of the Cafe may well have attracted the tiger in the first place.

[Dante3]

Good points.

If the guys tried to sue and I were on the jury, they would get nothing.

[Mr. Brightside]

The fact that the tiger got out clearly means the enclosure was NOT adequate.

[muawiyah]

Particularly an English speaking tiger who could understand she was being taunted ~ such a tiger could do most anything.

[Mr. Brightside]

Your star witness has already admitted that the wall was inadequate:

_________________________________________

Zoo Director Says Tiger Wall Was Low

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The director of the zoo where a teenager was killed by an escaped tiger acknowledged Thursday that the wall around the animal’s pen was just 12 1/2 feet high - well below the height recommended by the accrediting agency for the nation’s zoos.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1945139/posts

[spunkets]

""Taunting" really isn't a good word to use here since tigers usually don't understand English all that way."

Main Entry: 2taunt
Function: transitive verb
Etymology: perhaps from Middle French tenter to try, tempt — more at tempt
Date: 1539
: to reproach or challenge in a mocking or insulting manner : jeer at

I'm sure the tiger took the provoking acts and gestures as torments. Teasing implies pettiness, or a playfulness that obfuscates the fundamental essence of these acts as torments.

"even if the tiger was teased, she shouldn't have been able to leap out of the enclosure."

The motivation to leap out of the cage was caused by the tormenting with the slingshots, not the wall height.

[spunkets]

"You don't think that the trail of fresh blood has something to do with it?"

No. If it was blood and good eating the tiger was after, she had a kill already. The tiger was out to get the rest of the punks that hurt her. The blood trail was only a trail to where they could be found.

[MHT]

They are not cooperating with police because they know their actions that night will effect their ability to get a big settlement.

[spunkets]

"Your star witness has already admitted that the wall was inadequate:"

I don't consider the zoo director a witness. I said the wall was adequate for 67 years. I also said before that I considered the wall was too low to guarantee the tiger wouldn't get out. The fact that it took the tormenting with slingshots to get that tiger to jump out of that pit means the pit depth was adequate and the zoo's treatment of the animals had been good all along.

[muawiyah]

Depends on whose blood it was. Again, we don't know. It could be the blood of the fellow she killed. In that case she'd gone all the way to the Cafe to feed, tried to kill one guy, then did kill another and dragged him back toward the enclosure for the purpose of dining in comfort.

The abandoned shoe from an earlier event suggests this was a smart tiger who knew exactly what to do and had done it before.