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AFP:
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The San Francisco Chronicle said police found blood and a shoe inside the tiger’s enclosure and were investigating the possibility that one of the victims may have dangled a leg over the edge of a moat, aiding the tiger’s escape. The newspaper cited unnamed sources close to the investigation as saying that evidence found at the scene “included a shoe and blood in an area between the gate and the edge of the … moat.”
The body of 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr. was found near the grotto. He had been killed by a slash to the throat. The other two victims, brothers age 19 and 23 who accompanied Sousa to the zoo, were present when the tiger escaped, the report said. The four-year-old tiger, named Tatiana, attacked one of the brothers before police were able to distract the animal and shoot it dead. “There is no possible way the cat could have made it out of there in a single leap. I would surmise that there was help,” he said. “A couple of feet dangling over the edge could possibly have done it.”
The report also said “pinecones and sticks that were found in the moat might have been thrown at the animal. Those items could not have landed in the grotto naturally,” according to the sources.
A tragic incident or provoked attack? Since the Tiger was involved in a previous mauling, I’m surprised that it wasn’t destroyed at some point.
So should this go in the Darwin Award pile?
Geez, I don’t even taunt my cat. Ailurophobia? No, multiple parallel surgical scars down the face just aren’t on my wish list.
Darwin award? We’ll need more evidence. But definitely a close candidate for the BRDDA or the UKKMA.
The use of the term deadly to describe a tiger is fairly oxymoronic. They’re 300 pounds of fur, teeth, and claws. And they can take down animals much bigger and faster than us. Which is why the requirements for where they’re caged is so stringent.
Calling a single tiger deadly is like calling Linux zealots “obsessed”.
“I’m surprised that it wasn’t destroyed at some point.” Oh, you think it’s like a dog that once bites somebody and might be now prone to do it again so you’re better off putting it to sleep? I think with tigers, though, it’s a bit different. They are killers to begin with. You should expect them, given a chance, to try to kill you. Amur tigers are not in zoos for petting.
If I had my way, they would be left in the wild, I am not a PETA nutcase, but there is something just wrong about caging an animal like this. Even in the area I live, if a bear or mountain lion comes into a populated area, it is darted and relocated, if it attacks a human, it has lost its fear of humans and is destroyed. Not that I like it, its what needs to be done.
Tigers seem to have a taste for Gay people.
This reminds me of burglars who get trapped in chimneys and whatnot and sue the homeowners. Happens all the time, but don’t read about the outcomes although a few urban legends have it that a few win some bucks when there is any notion of a trap being set.
But the Tiger is not so lucky. Deadly Tiger, yes very redundant.
Like suing dynamite for blowing up.
And if Darwin gets his way, Even “we” will be attacking each other.. Oh wait…
The guys name was Carlos Sousa. Apparently the big cat likes Mexican food but it did give her the trots.
Is this open-mike night for lame homophobes and racists ?
nope, no relation and I never even heard of this dude.
“Since the Tiger was involved in a previous mauling, I’m surprised that it wasn’t destroyed at some point.”
Why? Because it’s not like all the
well-behaved, non-man-eating tigers
out there? Buddy, when it rips flesh,
it’s doing what it was born to do, and
it isn’t as if, being zoo-bound, it
isn’t an unnatural situation anyways.
Is no one going to note that regardless of whether people provoked the tiger, the real tragedy is that the beautiful intelligent animal was killed for human stupidity?
That’s right. Whether humans provoked the animal or jailed her with insufficient walls to stop her from getting out, the tiger was killed because humans were stupid.
It makes things far worse that there are so few tigers left in the world. Perhaps she could have been part of a program to breed tigers for reintroduction to the wild. As a Siberian tiger, she was even one of the rarer breeds, not nearly as common as the Bengal.
Damn homo sapiens ruin everything!
It is the sole fault of the zoo and zoos like it around the world.
Big preditory animals should be kept in enclosures that not only are good for the animals’ health, safety and enrichment; but also with walls and lexan structures that make it impossible for humans to dangle or throw objects at the animal, nor the animal to jump and come with reaching distance of a human.
This is what happens when zoos do not want to spend the dollars to properly account for animal response while engaged in an adrenal fight or flight response. Its called they didn’t think it would happen to THEM. A common human malady.
Cursor_
>Steve said, on December 27th, 2007 at 11:18 pm
>Is this open-mike night for lame homophobes and >racists ?
You didn’t get the memo? Damn…
Old buddhist proverb. “Love the tiger, but at a distance.”
“Deadly tiger may have been provoked”
Big pussies are atracted to big dicks.
#6 J
Yeah what he said. Did you forget to change it?
McCullough/#5
“Even in the area I live, if a bear or mountain lion comes into a populated area, it is darted and relocated, if it attacks a human, it has lost its fear of humans and is destroyed.”
Since when do bears and mountain lions fear humans?? Bear beats human in a fist fight every time. The only way we kill or capture these animals is by using tools and technology. These are wild animals that evolved into efficient instinctual killing machines over countless centuries…
Anyway, relocating the animals in your town is good. I don’t even think they should have killed Tiger unless it posed a danger to a living person when the police arrived because Tigers are an endangered species. I’m certain the zoo has an emergency procedure to dart the animals. That being said, if I was a cop who responded to a Tiger mauling, I’d probably shoot it too.
I BLAME BULL FIGHTING.
Before you call me nutty, let me tell you why.
I used to live in California where we had every culture under the sun. And I was a member of our local zoo.
I noticed that Hispanics were FAR more likely to taunt the animals. Some seemed to think this was the whole purpose of caging animals — to tease, taunt and provoke them.
It wasn’t just dumb kids (which you kind of expect) — I’d see whole families doing it — often led by a “macho” grown male. However, I would not see this so much in the other cultures.
I had to ask, “What is it about Hispanic culture that thinks taunting animals is OK?”
Bull fighting.
The whole purpose is to cage, taunt and eventually kill the animal to make some macho point.
Anyone want to refute this theory?
(As a liberal, I’m always uncomfortable stereotyping. So I’d be happy for alternate suggestions.)
I suggest just plain old “teenagers-in-groups” stupidity rather than latino machismo culture.
#20
“Anyone want to refute this theory?”
Yeah, De Sousa is a Portuguese last name.
Bad Kitty!
#23 – DaveW,
Nope. Bad humans!!
Sounds like a few teenagers/”young people” taunted a tiger and one of them bought it.
#21, Ron,
I blame their small dicks for the “machismo” acts.
Can anyone think of a cooler way to die, attacked by a Siberian Tiger?
#27 – edwinrogers,
Head swatted off by a polar bear works pretty well.
I must confess that I have thought that when I get too old to enjoy life, if I’m still just barely able, I might go for a walk in the Sundabarans where tigers do hunt people on occasion. There are about 500 tigers there; they eat about 100-250 people/year. So, humans aren’t a big part of their diet. But, there aren’t that many places in the world where human is truly on the menu. Tsavo Africa has lions that eat people somewhat regularly.
Sundabarans: http://tinyurl.com/2zwuya
Tsavo: http://tinyurl.com/34bbq6
#28. Scott, I like you, I love animals as much or more than most, but you are truly demented, in a nice sort of way.
#29….McCullough….lol…..Scott and I and other’s have talked about this human food thing in the past. And It’s one of the thing’s he and I agree on. When my time come’s I just want to be able to get to grizzly country or hopefully Polar bear country and become a meal for one of them.
The kid’s who lived aren’t talking, except to say that the kid who died tried to help one of them and the Tiger turned on him(and the kid who the Tiger was originally mauling took off and left his buddy). But looking at the age range (18 to 23)I would bet the farm they taunted the Tiger. Being one of the world’s top predator’s and very territorial, the Tiger didn’t take well to taunting.
Angel….last I heard, Portugese are lumped under **Hispanic**, but also under **Latino**.