damn is this captive animals go wild week or something, at a circus here in Oz an elephant crushed its "trainer" to death

paintedlady said:

It was reported the night this occurred that the reason why police did not use tranquilizers was because the tranquilizer would not take effect in time. The victim being mauled would have been dead by the time the tranquilizer took effect. It was absolutely necessary to shoot the tiger.

Sowhat said:

yeah...it also feels as if the local media are being more cautious about making claims about what happened while the nation (and SF Chronicle) seem more quick to throw hypotheticals out as fact....we just don't know what happened at this point.

sosgemini said:

You know when this goes through the wash, its going to turn out that those foolish kids were taunting the animal.

I hate zoos.

lazycrockett said:

They are already saying that. That there is no way that tiger could have gotten out on its own. Good thing the police were right there and at the scene to get that tiger before the tiger got to grab up a forth victim... I tell ya, that never happens in the hood!

4everYoung said:

True.

paintedlady said:

The zookeepers didn't call 911, it was one of the victims who called from their cell phone.

Be realistic, it was dark, they did not know how many tigers had actually ecaped or how many victims there were or where they were at and they did not know how many visitors will still at the zoo.

The police first came across a dead body then found the Tiger still attacking one of the victims. They tried to distract the Tiger and it turned on them. That is when they opened fire to save their own lives.

It is very sad that the Tiger was shot, but that is the reality of the situation.

All those plans and precautions you speak of sound nice, but most emergency situations never happen as planned.

Now it is coming out that the fence was only 12 and a half feet high. A good 4 feet lower than recommended (the enclosure was built in 1938).

Plus one of the local news channels had an interview with an ex trainer at the SF zoo and he said there was a Tiger in the late 60's that could and did get out by leaping the wall. They put water in the moat to stop that behavior but the water was drained when that particular Tiger died. So it is physically possible for some Tigers to climb/jump that wall.

The speculation is now that the Tiger was provoked, and that she was able to scale the wall to get out.

$$$$$

crazy kids

I heard the parents of the kid who got killed had no idea he was at the zoo. He had spent Christmas morning with his dad and was supposed to be at his mom's for dinner and never showed up. Neither of his parents knew he was at the zoo. The local media is really playing up the parents' grief.

kcwm said:

That's why they're called "wild" animals.

Sowhat said:

See, that's what I heard from the beginning. It's sad that the kid died and the tiger too; but I'm sorry, if you tease/provoke a tiger don't be surprised when it kicks your ass.

heartbeatocean said:

Yeah, yesterday on national news they showed the dad all teary-eyed but all I could focus on was semi-empty bottles of liquor and wine in the back ground. (Jose Cuervo I think). I thought, couldn't they have moved that stuff before filming for national television?

DevotedPuppy said:

I'm sure they had other things on their mind.

Sowhat said:

Not the parents, the TV/film crew.

20/20 just did a segment on wild animals that attacked/killed their trainers. One expert said humams have deluded themselves into thinking these animals love us as much as we love them.

uPtoWnNY said:

Amen

They had to shoot the tiger. What other choice was there at that point?

Sowhat said:

Thank you!

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[Edited 12/28/07 19:54pm]