Tiger Attack in San Francisco Zoo
Published by Mr. LOL on December 26, 2007
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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The San Francisco Zoo was closed to visitors Wednesday as investigators returned to the scene to determine how a tiger escaped from its enclosure and attacked three visitors, killing one of the men and mauling two others.
Police said they did not expect to find any other victims, but wanted to conduct a thorough sweep of the grounds because it was unclear how long the tiger had been loose on Christmas Day before she was killed by officers.
‘There’s no better light than daylight,’ said police Sgt. Neville Gittens. ‘The idea was to come back and quadruple check to make sure nobody out’s there. We just want to know.’
The tiger, a female named Tatiana, was the same animal that ripped the flesh off a zookeeper’s arm just before Christmas 2006. An investigation of that incident by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health faulted the zoo, which beefed up the pen where big cats are kept.
The three men - one of them 19 years old and the others in their early 20s - were attacked just after 5 p.m. Tuesday on the east end of the 125-acre zoo grounds near Ocean Beach, police spokesman Steve Mannina said.
Some maulings and other incidents involving captive animals in the United States:
