I’ve worked at places of public attraction / entertainment and I’ve seen my share of young people showing off. Zoo’s amusement parks, carnivals, circus’ all have posted rules. The rules are there to ensure the safety of the public. I know the SF zoo has these rules posted in many places throughout the park I’ve seen them, pointed them out to my own child and when she was younger explained why they made the rules. There have been millions of people in and out of that zoo since it opened in the 1930’s. This seems to be the only death involving a zoo animal that I can find after a few days of looking. The zoo is an accredited member in good standing of the AZA (Association of Zoo’s and Aqurariums), has under gone and PASSED safety inspections, the wall was lower than RECOMENDED not lower than REQUIRED. So, what happened? Why were these young men hurt? There has to be something more. As I said at the begining of this I’ve seen a lot of young people who get together with out their parents in places like the zoo. I hate to sterotype here and I DON’T know that is the case, but what if these boys were acting out? What IF they disregared all of the rules the zoo put in to place for their safety? What IF they crossed all the barriers that the zoo put into place for their safety? Would the tiger have come out of the pen if they were safetly on the other side of the railing where they should have been? Why should they not be held accountable for their own actions? Maybe the zoo should make a new rule: No one under 21 admitted with out a parent.

Jenna, why do you assume that animals have no souls? I don’t think that there is anything in the bible that states that? Animals have been shown to have emotions: they grieve when they loose a mate or a loved one, they save the lives of the ones they love. So if an animal is capable of love maybe it does have a soul. Animals are God’s creatures as much as humans are the loss of either is a tragedy. If He had been present at the time of the incident which do you think He would have saved ?

Sorry for the vent everybody…. That zoo and those tigers inspired my daughter to persue her dream to become a zoologist, I feel like I know each of them personally, I’ve spent hours outside that enclosure watching her and her companion. I wonder how he’s doing … does he miss her?

I SO agree. Only NOW the zoo is going to install them?

Adam

I think we have read some of the same background info on tigers. However, I do disagree with one point. I think we need zoos, built in the proper way and thinking about the animals well being.

Adam

These are questions now being asked by the media. Of course the first two days or so we stick to the specific story and then as that begins to solidify, we expand to look at other possible angles. You bring up some terrific questions and ones that are beginning to be asked. I was shocked to hear there were no surveillance camera’s or systems.

Adam

I have one for you Jenna almight one

Mother Nature Commands Attends
and Deserves Respects Always

If any of you know why the animals are in zoo’s maybe you would have a clue. It is called the SSP.
Species Survival Program we are trying to breed the strongest bloodlines to keep certian animals alive so when the go extinct in the wild we have programs we are currently working on to try to release them back into the wild. And if any of you have worked at a zoo or volunteered at one then you would understand a little more about the situation. Taunting & teasing is the #1 offense people do to big cats and there are plenty of people that cannot repspect coming to the zoo to learn education and conservation of any animal but they like to tease them. Saving our planted is every ones responsibility no matter what those boys did that was a very bad mistake on their part 1 paid with his life, 2 paid with injuries and Tatiana paid with her life and soul and I watched her grow up from a baby cub until she came to the San Francisco Zoo. Think about all of you….

Who can you blame for the incident?

The Tiger? No – The Tiger is just being a tiger.

The Zoo? No – The Tiger would have not gotten out if it weren’t assisted by stupidity (hanging over ledge). No matter if the wall was 3 feet below recommended height.

The boy and his friends? Yes – Again, stupidity by pissing off a Tiger. Even if the boy wasn’t directly involved in the taunting, he was an accomplice. Birds of a feather.

The parent? Yes. – For not raising the boy with common sense and instilling in him the respect for wildlife.

The boy’s father stated “I don’t think my son would do something like taunt animals,” he said Thursday morning. Uhhhh… yeeeah. Do I sense the “My baby would never do something like that” mentality? Even if the kid was just standing there witnessing what was going on, he was guilty by association. Parents should know what type of people their kids hang out with. When you obtain an endangered animal and place it in a cage located in the middle of a city, you have a responsibility to keep that endangered animal alive. This animal “was” (because it’s dead now – shot by police go figure) endangered. Let’s visit the concept of using tranquilizer guns… of course I don’t think police or zoo officials took that into consideration. I know there are people out there that say humans are just as endangered as Siberian Tigers. Well, for those hippies that believe that, they really need a reality check.

Tigers, like snakes and about every other animal in the wild, just want to be left alone to hunt, eat and have more baby tigers.

I am sorry the boy died-especially on Christmas day. She appeared to be defending herself: if somebody is throwing things at us, and then starts coming into our home we are going to want to defend ourself and that enclosure, inadequate as it must have been, was the poor thing’s home.

I do not see killing the Tiger, the zoo was totally unprepared for something like this and they ought to move their large cats to the Omaha Zoo where they are experts in rebuilding Siberian and other large cat populations. Somebody who would have had a dart gun available to control the situation-especially since the zookepers appeared not to know if he others had escaped.

And maybe this will serve as a lesson to everybody who visits a zoo: animals are not toys and animals in zoos are not pets. Jay Leno aside not every furry little cuddley animinal wants to be in your face. Sometimes they had rather kill you than look at you. Their geneic code tells them to hunt, chase and live in large spaces in the wild.

I’m not even really sure why we still need zoos-with modern technology we can see any animal.

There are only a few hundred Siberian tigers and how many million illegal immigrants? Think about it.

great post—

By the way your reports of yours that were on this morning were terrific.
You have done an incredible job on this story.

Thank you

The human loss is also great, whether he taunted or not.

Adam

No fault is causing more problems than we realize in this day and age…..that’s my opinion.

Adam

Your photos are AMAZING!! If you are new to the blog, on slower days I post some of my favorite pictures and let all the bloggers try and guess where I snapped them. Your photos are spectacular and thank you for sharing them. Feel free to pass along more of your work any time.

Adam

Good points.

Adam

Good summation. There is one chip in the argument against the zoo and that is the walls were not 18 feet as originally told to us. However, that still doesn’t mean the zoo was at fault.

Adam

Your thoughts are echoed by many on the blog the last couple of days.

Adam

I love the debate and even the crazy comments. Especially on this day when Bhutto was killed in a country where this could not happen freely and safely.

Adam

Gotta love the Israeli peanut gallery (Avi)!

Adam

Just a few updates. The Zoo was closing and there were only 25 people or so in the entire park. Also, police believe at this point that the three young men may have been together at the Tiger area when the attack occurred and the two brothers fled to the outdoor cafe’.

Adam

I wasn’t there for the interview, but I watched it live over our video feed at the truck. I think there may have been some language barrier a bit and also the man was grieving. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt at this point.

Adam

Are you Louisiana Melissa?

I got an email a couple weeks ago about the ship being built there from the 9-11 scraps– and he sent me a picture of the ship. Was it completed?

If you are her, I hope you and your mom are well–

Anytime you try to hand feed a wild animal you have to remember that the animal doesn’t realize that you are feeding it. It will instinctively think that it has to fight you for the food and thus a lot of humans are maimed or killed because they think the animal understands their good intentions and forget that the animal sees you as a competitor.