The Horror of the Tiger Attack  − 1 February, 2008

I listened to the 911 tapes of that fateful day at the San Francisco Zoo when Tatiana the Tiger escaped her enclosure and killed
What a horrific scene it must have been. Unbelievable. The 911 call is terrifying. Desperate. My heart really goes out to the victims and their families and I certainly hold a seed of anger and frustration at the poor response of the zoo staff and emergency rescue workers.
From the 911 call, it took almost an interminably long time for rescue aid to get to the victims. Perhaps if they had gotten there sooner the fatality, Carlos Souza, would have survived his injuries, but given the severity of the wounds and the length of time it took aid to finally reach him, it is likely the cause of death is that he bled out from the attack.
And now the PR firm hired to make the zoo look better has impugned the character of the victims by claiming they had a slingshot or were drinking and taunted the tiger into leaping out of her enclosure. All of these claims have proved false, and honestly, even if they were true, it doesn’t matter. Zoos have to assume people are stupid and taunt the animals to get some sort of a response or action out of the beasts. Enclosures are supposed to protect the animals from the people and vice versa. That means enclosures that predators cannot escape from!
Even if the victims were parading around in zebra suits to taunt the tiger, she should have been in an enclosure that prevented her from escaping. Period. The wall as a full four feet LOWER than recommended. It was also found that Tatiana’s hind claws were worn down from repeated attempts to scale the wall. No cat likes being cooped up – she would’ve eventually escaped from the ineffective enclosure and the scene could’ve been much worse. How many 5th graders go to the zoo on class trips and taunt the big cats? Can you imagine if she had gotten out that day?
From the reports, it also seems like the zoo staff didn’t believe the other victims – certainly hampering the efforts of the victims to get aid to Souza. They wouldn’t let him in to the café (which perhaps would have been some protection as when the police finally arrived, Tatiana was attacking one of the victims near the café) and scoffed at his report that a tiger had escaped. Apparently they were in disbelief that a tiger even could escape and thought perhaps the victim was high on drugs. That cost the rescue effort precious minutes and maybe cost Souza his life.
Mark Geragos has taken on legal representation of the victims and I hope he sues the ever-living-daylights out of the zoo. They are absolutely at fault and responsible for the incident. The enclosure was substandard and caused the death of Carlos Souza and massive injuries to his friends, brothers Paul and Kulbir Dhaliwal. Apparently, the wall was only about 12 and a half feet high – Geragos says it couldn’t contain a “house cat” and I agree – I have 3 house cats and have even seen some dogs (the athletic Belgian Malinois comes to mind – I have a couple of those, too) able to scale that same height. So it would’ve been relatively easy for a young, motivated Siberian Tiger.
This is a horrible tragedy that shouldn’t have happened. Officials had pointed out the ineffective height of the wall, but as they had never had an escape, they figured they were OK. It’s too bad someone had to die to make them spend the money to fix it... now they will end up spending a lot more…