Tiger Attack At San Francisco Zoo - One man was killed and two others severely injured when a 350-pound Siberian tiger named Tatiana escaped her enclosure at the San Francisco Zoo and proceeded to attack the men.
The three men in the tiger attack at the San Franciso Zoo, 17-year old Carlos Souza and two of his friends from nearby San Jose, were possibly taunting the tiger, according to police spokesman Steve Mannina. The attack occurred just after the 5 p.m. closing time, on the east end of the 125-acre grounds.
They all suffered “pretty aggressive bite marks,” Mannina said.
The two injured men were listed in stable condition at San Francisco General Hospital. Dr. John Brown, an emergency room physician, said Wednesday they suffered deep bites and claw cuts to their heads, necks, arms and hands.
“These injuries are severe injuries, but they are very treatable, and these two gentlemen seem to be in good health, so I think they have a good chance,” Brown said.
The zoo’s director of animal care and conservation, Robert Jenkins, could not explain how Tatiana escaped. The tiger’s enclosure is surrounded by a 15-foot-wide moat and 20-foot-high walls, and the approximately 300-pound female did not leave through an open door, he said.
“There was no way out through the door,” Jenkins said. “The animal appears to have climbed or otherwise leaped out of the enclosure.”
The first attack happened right outside the Siberian tiger’s enclosure and the victim, 17-year old Carlos Souza, died at the scene. A group of four officers came across his body when they entered the dark zoo grounds, Mannina said.
The second victim was about 300 yards away, in front of the Terrace Cafe. The man was sitting on the ground, blood running from gashes in his head and Tatiana sitting next to him.
SF Zoo Tiger Attack Video
The cat attacked the man again, Mannina said. The officers approached the tiger with their handguns. Tatiana moved in their direction and several of the officers fired, killing the animal.
Only then did they see the third victim, who had also been mauled by the escaped Siberian tiger.
Update:
Rochelle Dicker, an emergency room surgeon at San Francisco General Hospital who operated on the victims, said today that the two survivors, 19- and 23-year-old brothers from San Jose, were recovering remarkably well.
Tiger attack victim Carlos Souza picture:
And that’s the latest news on the tiger attack at San Francisco Zoo.
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December 26th, 2007 at 11:12 am
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December 28th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
SAN FRANCISCO - 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 12 1/2 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.
“She had to have jumped,” he said. “How she was able to jump that high is amazing to me.”
Mollinedo said safety inspectors had examined the wall, built in 1940, and never raised any red flags about its size.
“When the AZA came out and inspected our zoo three years ago, they never noted that as a deficiency,” he said. “Obviously now that something’s happened, we’re going to be revisiting the actual height.”
The 4-year-old tiger, a female named Tatiana, went on a rampage near closing time Tuesday, killing Sousa and severely injuring the two others before police shot it to death.
Brothers Paul Dhaliwal, 19, and Kulbir Dhaliwal, 23, were at San Francisco General Hospital with severe bite and claw wounds. Their names were provided by hospital and law enforcement sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because the family had not yet given permission to release their names.
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.
January 8th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
read something about maybe they were shooting slingshots at the tiger before it attacked…