Patron Relates How Young Men Taunted, “Roared at Lions”
Short Walls, Loudspeakers and Signs Offered as Protection
Zoo Director: “Something Prompted Our Tiger to Leap over Exhibit”
What Prompted Same Tiger to Tear Part of Zoo Keeper’s Arm Off in September?
The current debate over the mauling of two brothers and fatal attack of 17-year-old young man by a Siberian tiger at the San Franciso Zoo is not whether the zoo’s tiger grotto walls were high enough to keep a tiger inside its enclosure but whether the young men had “taunted” the tiger.
That this incident of purported “taunting” mitigates the zoo’s responsibility to ensure the animals are unable to escape their exhibits and puts the blame squarely on the shoulders of the young men, one of whom is now dead.
In a San Francisco Chronicle article, zoo patron Jennifer Miller reported that she, her husband and children saw four young men at the big cat grottos and that three of the men were teasing the lions. Ms. Miller said that she called the zoo to report the obvious “taunting.”
“The boys, especially the older one, were roaring at them. He was taunting them,” the San Francisco woman said. “They were trying to get that lion’s attention. … The lion was bristling, so I just said, ‘Come on, let’s get out of here’ because my kids were disturbed by it.
Miller called their behavior “disturbing.”
Her family was looking at the lions when the young men stopped beside them at the big-cat grottos - five outdoor exhibits attached to the Lion House. The young men started roaring at the lions and acting “boisterous” to get their attention, said Miller, who added that she watched the four for five minutes or so a little after 4 p.m.
“It was why we left,” she said. “Their behavior was disturbing. They kept doing it.”
So what did the zoo do?
Read rest of story:
San Francisco Zoo Tiger Attack: Blaming the Victims
Source:
San Francisco Zoo Tiger Attack: Blaming the Victims
Mondoreb blogs at Death By 1000 Papercuts. Interested readers can e-mail him at
mondoreb@gmail.com. All DBKP stories are filed under Mondoreb at BNN.
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4 users commented in " SF Zoo Tiger Attack: Who to Blame, Zoo Administration or Victims? "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a Trackbackthey roared and the tiger replied with swift deadly force.
next time someone decides to taunt a wild animal in captivity they will probably think twice.
The grotto is badly deficient and there have been a number of close calls in the past. Poorly maintained landscaping, overhanging tree branches plus cracks in the wall gave the tiger the means to scale it. Imagine the situation, zoo had closed, the 3 young men were starting to walk away, backs turned to the grotto. The big cat lunged up and grabbed one by the throat and the rest is history. No taunting or other BS, just a tiger, who’d previously attacked a human and tasted human blood, at feeding time in the middle of winter. Attack at dusk, etc. Why is anyone surprised? Arrest the director and all upper managers. They knew immediately what had happened and why, then, denied, delayed and now, try to defame. They denied the escape, claiming the two survivors insane. They delayed the cops (who they knew would blow away this bad, evil cat with a nastier disposition than the other ones in the grotto). They now defame the three young men. Arrest the management and try them for murder!
Arrest SOB management! I’ve been doing a bit of poking around the web. There is a dude at the SFBG who has made an open and shut case which utterly damns the managment. It turns out, it’s been known since at least the 1960s, maybe longer, that escapes are possible. In fact, it has actually happened. News was spiked / forgotten since then. In the previous escapes, cats were not bad seeds, no one was attacked. But this bad seed cat, a Denver Zoo reject, brought in as a mating experiment, was not only destined to escape but to seek her obsession, human flesh and blood. Once an animal, especially a non domesticated one, tastes it, there is no turning back, obsession will kick in. This is a long known fact of all of us who are tuned into animal behavior. They never should have reopened the grotto. Oh, you may not know that detail. After the zoo keeper incident, it was shut - until Sept 2007. Hmmm … must have been some management pressure to get it back open. Zoo keeper incident had been nearly forgotten, Christmas vacation for the kiddies coming, got to get it back open again. So, the known deadly enclosure, was put back in business. The known bad seed cat was put back in there. Decisions were made. Who made them, are criminals. SFDA, why won’t you indict zoo management? Where is your courage?
Please, let’s stop shirking personal responsibility. Let’s stop blaming others for our misfortunes. Those boys got what they deserved. I don’t care if it sounds callous. People who do obviously stupid dangerous things and die is just nature’s way of weeding out the idiots. Oh, it boggles the mind how some people can be so bankrupt of common sense. You play with matches and give yourself 2nd degree burns, then you get what you deserve.
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