Horror at the Zoo

[panthera]

nature

Whatever mistakes were made or safety measures overseen, taunting animals is just about as vicious as it gets.

People who taunt animals are invariably cruel to humans, too. And before the PC crowd jump on me, that is based on my four semesters work on the crisis phone lines and seven years volunteering at the Humane Society. The viciousness of some people is beyond measure. It has nothing to do with sexuality or ethnic origin.

I don't know for a fact that these young men were abusing her, but if they were, then it is a pity she only got one of the three.

If they weren't, well, that is a tragedy. Otherwise, the only injured party here was the innocent tiger.

 

[frigilux]

I'm amazed at the zig-zag route this story is taking in the media. Let's recap, shall we?

1) Tiger escapes and kills at zoo cafe, possibly the zoo's fault. Bad zoo!

2) Someone might have helped tiger escape. Bad person, zoo exonerated!

3) Wall may have been too short and tiger was able to get out. Bad zoo, after all!

4) Teens may have tried to scale wall and dangled leg over wall, taunting tiger. Bad teens, zoo (almost) exonerated again!

5) Tiger climbed/leaped too-short wall enclosure. Valiant teen distracts tiger from mauling friend, then is, himself, killed by tiger. Brave teen! Bad zoo!

Every time the media leads us to a probably villain, the story morphs. This is the trouble with our 24-hour news set-up. A lot of reporting is done before facts are known and investigations launched. Gotta fill those news hours with SOMETHING, right?

 

[sudsmaster]

It's all in the nature of an on-going story.

Um, the zoo was largely responsible for the confusion here. It gave out five different heights for the moat wall, for example, before the zoo director finally decided to take a tape measure and measure it himself. I don't blame the media for that, they were only trying to report what the zoo was telling them.

The zoo was also the source of the stories that the tiger must have been provoked, that someone might have trespassed inside the enclosure, etc. The way the zoo personnel reacted - or failed to react - during this crisis is slowly coming out as well. At one point, the zoo gates were locked and paramedics were not allowed inside to treat the victims! Emergency procedures were not followed by zoo personnel, weapons inside the zoo for the purpose of putting down an escaped dangerous animal were never brought out. It took police from a station outside the zoo to finally stop the tiger attack.

Incidentally, the SF Zoo is a private company that operates on city owned property.