I was up in the Bay Area yesterday when news broke out that a tiger at the San Francisco zoo has gotten loose and killed a visitor before the cops arrived and killed the sucker.
Leigh Lawson stands in front of
the San Francisco Zoo on Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2007, protesting the
killing of a Siberian tiger that killed one person and injured two
others on Christmas Day. Police officers shot the tiger after it
escaped from its enclosure and attacked the three visitors. Lawson,
picketing alone, outside the zoo Wednesday afternoon, says she wishes
officers had tranquilized the animal instead.
To which I say, “what took so long?” I mean this is San Francisco and the nuts run rampant there.
The sad part? She wasn’t there in memoriam for the 17 year old who was killed. No, she was there to protest the “excessive” force used by the police.
It takes all kinds.
UPDATE
A lively discussion going on in the comment section, check it out. Also, lots of new information out today:
The last minutes of a 17-year-old boy’s life were spent trying to save his friend from the tiger that was mauling him 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.
The heroic portrait of Sousa and a timeline of the dramatic Christmas Day attack emerged as officials revealed that the tiger’s escape from its enclosure may have been aided by walls that were well below the height recommended by the accrediting agency for the nation’s zoos.
San Francisco Zoo Director Manuel A. Mollinedo acknowledged that the wall around the animal’s pen was just 12½ feet high, after previously saying it was 18 feet. According to the Association of Zoos & Aquariums, the walls around a tiger exhibit should be at least 16.4 feet high.
Mollinedo said it was becoming increasingly clear the tiger leaped or climbed out, perhaps by grabbing onto a ledge. Investigators have ruled out the theory the tiger escaped through a door behind the exhibit at the zoo, which remained closed Friday
~~~After interviewing the brothers, police said Kulbir Dhaliwal was the animal’s first victim.
As the tiger clawed and bit him, Sousa and the younger brother yelled in hopes of scaring it off him, police said. The cat then went for Sousa, slashing his neck as the brothers ran to a zoo cafe for help.
After killing the teenager, the tiger followed a trail of blood left by Kulbir Dhaliwal about 300 yards to the cafe, where it mauled both men, police said.
Four officers who had already discovered Sousa’s body then arrived and found the cat sitting next to one of the bloodied brothers, police Chief Heather Fong said. The victim yelled, “Help me! Help me!” and the animal resumed its attack, Fong said.
The officers used their patrol car lights to distract the tiger, and it turned and began approaching them, leading all four to open fire, she said.
~~~
On Thursday, Fong denied earlier reports that police were looking into the possibility that the victims had dangled a leg or other body part over the edge of the moat, after a shoe and blood was found inside the enclosure. No shoe was found inside, but a shoeprint was found on the railing of the fence surrounding the enclosure, and police are checking it against the shoes of the three victims, she said.
I’m still highly doubtful that the tiger just decided to jump out for no reason but it appears a bit of disinformation was spread about the shoe being found in the enclosure.
See author page
We should protest “excessive use of tigers” by the City of San Francisco.
Maybe the kids were taunting this tiger and have something to do with this. Seems strange to me that these teenage and older boys were at the Zoo on Christmas Day, by the Tigers pen at closing time with only a few people in the Zoo. Sounds fishy to me.
Could be Karen. Doesn’t change the fact that if a tiger is attacking somebody you shoot to kill.
Those kids were taunting that tiger. I can go either way on this (I’m a former lefty after all) but I have to admit this conservative loves tigers way more than any teenagers. As Rush says, a tiger is a tiger is a tiger. They don’t belong in civilization and we get what we deserve when we put them there. And oh the sweet irony of it being San Francisco.
Full on nutjob. What, like cops are just supposed to pull a tranq gun outta their batbelt and put the killer beast to sleep? Yeah, brilliant. OH! Here’s a better idea, use some pepper spray on it or a taser. Yeah, that’s REAL SMART! Nothin like pissin off a rampaging tiger that’s escaped the zoo and killed already.
OR
Option B,
kill it
Tigers are not snuggly big kitty cats or bouncy tiggers from Winnie the Pooh. Nope. They’re killer beasts. When one kills and gets loose…ya kill it asap.
I dunno. Maybe this girl should be blamed. After all, was she running around with a tranq gun the instant she heard it was loose? No? Well then she failed to do her civic duty as a citizen and failed to protect snuggles the man-eating tiger.
What an idiot.
Methinks someone’s had juuuuuuuuuuuuuust a little too much toke of the smoke.
“Pre-judgeing” what I’ve read in today’s SF Chron online, LINK, my guess is after the two boys that survived the attack are interviewed, we might hear a tale of all three taunting the animal to a level that perhaps made the cat jump beyond her normal abilities. (total speculation at this point)
And as for the moronic Mz. Lawson, typical SF Moonbat mentality. The reality that human life is more precious than an animals just doesn’t compute in her world. Sad that we are allowing the human species to breed such contempt and lunacy. We can only hope this idiot never has any offspring.
I wonder if she’ll protest the taunting of the tiger (yeah, right)?
Too often when people are sad and going through the stages of the grieving process (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance) they get side-tracked into the comforting feeling of talking tough to power; or just talking tough, expressing defiance, etc. When that happens we get nutjobs like this one. I’m only surprised-no, SHOCKED(!) that she didn’t blame Bush for the kitty’s death. I know, I know…give it time.
Oh now come on guys! Ms. Lawson just misses Tatiana. And why not? It was a beautiful Tiger:
http://www.physorg.com/newman/gfx/news/2006/tigerinattac.jpg
Tatiana was born in the Denver Zoo and donated to the SF Zoo. She was 4 years old.
I fully understand that when human life is at stake, if there is no tranquilizer gun handy, you have to shoot to kill.
But it’s still sad and I will look forward to learning whether there was actually some taunting of the animal.
If she just missed the tiger, but mourns her enough to carry a sign, then where’s the kitty equality with mankind that would warrant signs saying, “Honk if you miss the guy that our tiger ate”?
if these kids were innocent, the MSM will have a field day at the zoo’s expense. But it appears on the surface taunting occured.
Too bad their isn’t a death penalty for taunting man-eaters. Oh, wait – there is!
The preliminary question being asked is “how could this cat have done this without assistance?” and the answer appears to be, it couldn’t.
And animal rights extremists eat their young , so the breeding thing shouldn’t be a problem.
Wouldn’t this be a case of involuntary manslaughter (of Carlos Sousa Jr.), against the teenagers under 192b for a death resulting while committing animal cruelty?
From the SF Chronicle:
I’ll wait to express any condolences to the family of Carlos Sousa Jr. until after the full investigation proves this story false.
If it’s true, I’m siding with Ms. Lawson.
Um, you will side with Ms. Lawson that the tiger shouldn’t of been killed when it was attacking people?
Not sure I’m following the logic.
Were the kids at fault for antagonizing the tiger? It appears so. But should the cops have known this upon arrival and even if they did know this should they just of said “oh well, let him munch some more”?
Don’t get it.
I know if I’m called to a zoo and see a tiger attacking people I will NOT think about who started it, who let the tiger loose, who antagonized the tiger. I will only think about stopping the threat.
To now call for the heads of the cops because they DID take action to stop the threat is asinine.
Oh I’m SHOCKED at your response Curt-nay on near disgusted. I mean, that was a pretty kitty. A responsible police officer would have hit it with a taser, or tortured it with pepper spray. [/sarcasm off]
Just out of curiosity, can anyone think about that for a minute? I mean, tranq’s are out of the question since police weren’t carrying em (might as well put out the idea that arriving police should have come prepared with a side of beef to draw it back into it’s enclosure). SO, we go lethal or less than lethal. If lethal force isn’t acceptable, then we’re down to:
1) cops beating on the pissed off man-eating tiger with clubs
2) cops using pepper spray or something like it to really make it go insane with rage
3) cops hit it with electricity…as if that wouldn’t literally energize the man-eater.
I canNOT imagine what a pissed off man eating tiger would do if it was hit with a taser, then pepper spray, and then beat on with clubs. I can imagine that there’d be more than 1 person dead though.
These police officers deserve commendations for going up against a raging, man-eating, killer tiger. I don’t care what they were armed with, that took courage.
Yeah…it was a pretty widdle kittie, thats for sure.
Lethal force is always at the top of the force chart of course and it is to only be used when myself, or some other person is in danger of losing their lives as these kids most assuredly were. I would not even think about less lethal force in this type of situation whether I had tranq’s or not (which we would never have) because the time it took for a tranq to take effect the tiger could of swiped his claw at a throat of another kid. No, its shoot until the threat is gone, which means he is dead.
Isn’t it basically standard that once a an animal like a tiger kills a person that the animal must be put down?
If the facts are as they seem then I can see her point. After all there are only 20,000 or so tigers left in the world compared to hundreads of millions of stupid humans. The police should have sat back and let natural selection take place.
Darwin Awards are given out for a reason.
Seriously though, according to what’s posted, All she has said was she misses the tiger and wishes the police could have traqulized the animlal. I wish the same thing. That’s not the same as blaming the police. They had there job to do and did it. But one can still mourn the loss and dislike the sitution and wish it could have been different.
Random
“Isn’t it basically standard that once a an animal like a tiger kills a person that the animal must be put down?”
Actually no. In the wild, it’s common and often the requirement, but not always. In the case of zoos, it’s not. FOX had an interview with Jack Hanna yesterday and asked him the same question. I thought it was once they taste human, but it’s not the case. Interesting.
Curt said: “Um, you will side with Ms. Lawson that the tiger shouldn’t of been killed when it was attacking people?
Not sure I’m following the logic.”
I’m not sure Ms. Lawson felt that way and I certainly do not:
It’s clear that shooting the Tiger was the only option available when human lives were at risk.
But that doesn’t negate any responsibility those attacked may have for causing the incident. I’ll wait for the investigation before passing judgement.
C’mon guys. The idea (as one idiot stated) that natural selection should have taken it’s course is ridiculous. All of us (let me repeat… ALL) have done ignorant things that could have ended up with us being dead. Whether in our youth, a drinking incident, a fast car, a stupid prank, drugs, whatever. These guys possibly did something very stupid and for them, it ended with the death of their friend… a human. I don’t care if they taunted the animal. Zoo officials who designed the enclosure with the mindset that “Hey, no one will ever taunt these tigers so there’s no need for the fence to be that high” were just as stupid in their assumptions. It’s a freaking wild animal. They usually don’t need to be taunted in order to attack. The zoo officials should have anticipated every possible scenario (including a goofy teenager taunting the animal) when they designed the enclosure… period. Sure the guys were unbelievably dumb (if they did indeed taunt the tiger) but if you have a zoo where thousands and thousands of people of all ages visit every year, then you better anticipate some goofball doing something stupid and make sure that your bases are covered. If they had driven a stolen tank into the enclosure and then been mauled/killed, then there’s a little less liability on the zoo, but if all it took was a guy taunting the tiger and a little extra-ordinary ability from the animal to get out and kill, then the zoo officials are to blame. End of story.
The caption read “protesting the killing” and her statement stated she wished tranq’s would of been used rather then lethal force.
I take that to mean she was protesting the use of lethal force by the cops. Why else would she be out there protesting?
As far as responsibility for the attack, I agree. The kids may have been responsible. Sounded funny from the beginning.
Good comment Bullet. Agree completely. The kids did something very very stupid and one paid the ultimate price for it. But how in the world did a large zoo such as the SF one design a cage where a tiger could get loose with some encouragement?
>>After all there are only 20,000 or so tigers left in the world…>>
Actually, I believe it was a Siberian Tiger, of which there are fewer than 1000 in the world – so it _is_ a sad result.
>>Zoo officials who designed the enclosure with the mindset that “Hey, no one will ever taunt these tigers so there’s no need for the fence to be that high” >>
Got any idea how high these creatures can jump? I don’t…but if I understand it correctly, either the moat was 25 ft wide and the wall was 30 ft high, or vice versa. That seems pretty reasonable to me…. Have they determined yet if “over the wall” is how the tiger got out? I understood that they were considering the possibility that someone had opened a gate. Boy…that would be stupid beyond belief…!
Revised by wikipedia…(they’re fast!)
“On Thursday December 27, the zoo retracted its prior claims that the grotto’s moat wall was 18 feet (5.5 m) tall, after officials measured it and found it was actually 12.5 feet (3.8 m) tall. The AZA standard for big cat enclosures is a moat wall of 16.5 feet (5.0 m). The tiger’s feet were also found to have concrete chips, suggesting it climbed out of the moat using its claws on the wall.[11]”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatiana_%28tiger%29
for more info…
Pssst…
it’s an -animal-. This lady needs to (A) get over it, and (B) consider (she is, probably, a “compassionate” liberal, right?) what stupid stuff like this communicates to the family of the kid that died.
Ultimately, it’s Bush’s fault. It happened on his watch.
12 and half feet high? That’s it?
Wow….I think the zoo is going to be paying some money. While the kids were ultimately at fault (if they were indeed taunting the tiger) like Bullet said, we’ve all done real stupid crap, especially in our teenage years. For the wall to be 4 feet shorter then what is standard tells me that the zoo will be taking some of the blame themselves.
It’s illegal to taunt animals in California so I don’t know if the zoo would have to pay anything if they did taunt the tiger. For example, if a person taunted a police dog and the police dog bit the person taunting the dog, nothing would happen to the dog but the person doing the taunting would be charged with animal cruelty. The person wouldn’t be allowed to sue either.
Greg, I’ve looked through the California Penal Code and cannot find any law that includes taunting an animal. Using a police dog is not a good example since that dog is actually considered an officer in the eyes of the state.
Useless facts, but interesting:
http://www.rexano.org/Statistics/REXANOAZATABLE.pdf
Some new info out today, put it in the update to the post.
The code is Cal Penal Code 597b (tormented)
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=pen&group=00001-01000&file=594-625c
Definition of torment:
http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/torment
“To agitate or upset greatly”
“To annoy, pester, or harass”
If it’s found they taunted/pestered the tiger so much, the tiger got upset and left it’s confines, I feel the teenagers broke Cal Penal Code 597b. When the tiger then killed, Carlos Sousa Jr., I feel the surviving teenagers then broke Cal Penal Code 192b.
Sorry Greg. We use that section, but only for dog or cock fighting. You won’t find a DA anywhere who would use this section for a kid putting a leg over a wall of a tiger exhibit.
I imagine that she was sad about the tiger being killed, I mean, it sucks that it had to be killed. But some people just need attention, and she’s getting a lot of it. The more we talk about this the more she’ll think we’re listening I’m not saying I agree with her. If I saw that happen in front of me I wouldnt think twice before i shot it. The zoo is supposed to be safe. If you see these animals in the wild they WILL kill you. That’s why you go to the zoo. Because wild animals kill people. The fact that they taunted it is irrevelant. Some animals will go nuts if you look at them wrong. What if this was a little girl that got killed because she had food or was crying? The zoo should be held accountable and this girl should be slapped.
Outstanding points Jed. Seriously. The little girl analogy is perfect. Would people still protest the sadness at losing the tiger or losing the little girl?
Here’s some more info on the “victims:”
So, we have at least two hip hoppers with a recent arrest for violent outbursts.
I regret that the one guy lost his life. But I’m having a hard time finding much sympathy for the other two. Especially if their taunting of this beautiful animal caused the death of their friend and the tiger.
And I totally understand where the girl with the sign is coming from.
Someone just sent me a new rap in honor of the latest news that the victims were hip-hopping police fighters:
Yo yo yo everybody say hell yeah!
(Hell yeah)
Say hell yeah!
(Hell yeah)
Weeeeeeeeeell, I’m Tweedle D and dis is Tweedle Dum
We’re the toughest on the street long as we got our guns
But we went to the zoo, and shit was new
Got a tiger on the loose and he’s comin for you
no he ain’t
yes he is
no he ain’t
yes he is
Got a tiger on the loose and he’s comin for you
Naaaaaaaah, got a tiger on the loose and he’s eaten some fool
everybody say hell yeah
(Hell yeah)
everybody say hell yeah
(Hell yeah)
Now, the kitty was big, but Tweedle D is faster
Tweedle dum is fat, now he’s just splatter
Got a tiger on the loose an he’s comin for you
Naaaaaaaah, got a tiger on the loose and he’s eaten some fool
So the cops show up and the cap kitty’s ass
and the hippies are pissed ’cause they used guns not gas
everybody say hell yeah
(Hell yeah)
everybody say hell yeah
(Hell yeah)
Got a tiger on the loose and he’s comin for you
Naaaaaaaah, the tiger got capped ’cause he ate some fool
LMAO!
Ok…let’s replace “little girl” with “big fat Michael Moore”.
Holy crud! Wonder who sent you that bit of brilliant poetry. He should write a book, or something. (^_~)
Talk about skating around an issue! 🙂
Wordsmith plays it safe!
Yes. I avoid controversy at all costs.
Reprint my last email response, if you’d like. I don’t mind. I just hope it makes sense in the flow of conversation we’ve had “behind the scenes”.
On second thought…that could constitute real animal cruelty. I wouldn’t want to wish that kind of indigestion on any living creature.
And a nother report lists the last entry by one of these violent hip hoppers on his My Space page saying he was “feeling high” just before they set out to the Zoo.
Guess that trip was a real buzz kill!
And the surviving pair has hired big shot lawyer Mark Geragas who will no doubt say that despite being drunk, violent gangsta types intent on provoking the Tiger, it’s the Zoo’s fault because the facility didn’t take into account that people could be that stupid.
These two should be charged with the murder of their friend!
And yes, I still miss the Tiger!
I work at a zoo in Indiana, and let me just say though our zoo is smaller it has San Fran beat! That zoo has had more issues then any other zoo across America. Who makes a tiger enclosure 12ft with no roof/grate top when tigers are known to jump up to 14ft. It is a shame that the tiger was killed after being taunted by a moron. Though it sucks that he was killed, he shouldn’t have aggravated the tiger. She was very high up on the AZA breeding list and it took a major toll on the breeding scale for tigers. And as far a tranquilizer goes, they has to be charged and it takes time for it to set in, it’s not instantaneous.