On Christmas Day, Carlos Sousa Jr., a 17-year-old boy visiting the San Francisco Zoo was mauled to death by a tiger on the loose.
Mayor Gavin Newsom's administration is calling on the zoo "to make immediate changes to ensure that the gruesome attack is not repeated."
"Live animal attacks won't be tolerated in San Francisco, and the mayor expects immediate improvements in protocols and facilities so that tragedies such as this never happen again," Newsom's spokesman Nathan Ballard said. "It's simply unacceptable."
...Many in City Hall expressed outrage at the attack, with some members of the Board of Supervisors calling for a special hearing and saying the city could be forced to pay millions as a result of lawsuits, and others questioning whether it's time to reconsider the agreement between the city and the nonprofit group that manages the zoo.
San Francisco Zoo director Manuel Mollinedo said zoo officials will install surveillance cameras at all areas where tigers and lions live, as well as a new metal barrier that would prevent the cats from jumping over a 14-foot-high wall in the zoo's grotto, as the 350-pound Siberian tiger Tatiana is believed to have done Tuesday evening.
"Maybe this is something that should have been done years ago, but as far anybody can remember this has never happened before," Mollinedo said.
What really happened here?
Did the tiger jump the barriers, or did the tiger have help getting out?
A few minutes ago, during a news conference at the hospital, an official said, "The most dangerous predator in the city of San Francisco is man, not a tiger."
This investigation is just beginning.
I'm not passing judgment until it's clear whether or not humans were responsible for letting the tiger run loose.
However, I can pass judgment on the case at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Manitowoc.
The two cougars that escaped their habitat at the Lincoln Park Zoo have been captured, according to Mayor Kevin Crawford.
One cougar was tranquilized and returned to its cage shortly after 10 a.m. Another cougar that also escaped was found and captured earlier today.
The zoo’s two cougars had escaped the caged area after vandals cut the chain-linked fence used to keep the cougars secure.
The cougars remained in the parks perimeter, chain-linked fence, Crawford said.
Crawford said the police department will actively search for the vandals who cut the cougar’s fence.
“These animals can’t survive in the wild,” Crawford said. “They are raised for the purpose of education. People who think they are releasing these animals as a service to the animals are just wrong.”
Crawford said the animals are domesticated and expect their food brought to them.
Despite the cougars’ docile demeanor in captivity, they are large cats with killer instincts, Crawford said. The cats had posed a threat to area residents had they escaped the zoo’s perimeter fence.
Crawford said the cougars’ escape was discovered between 7 and 8 a.m. when a zookeeper noticed cougar footprints in the snow. The zookeeper immediately locked the zoo's front gates and called the police department and Joe McLafferty, director of the city's Parks and Recreation Department.
It's interesting that Mayor Crawford noted, "People who think they are releasing these animals as a service to the animals are just wrong."
Crawford seems to be suggesting that this may have been a case of animal rights fanaticism run amok.
It's possible that animal rights nutjobs would use all the attention the San Francisco case is getting to bring attention to their cause.
Zoos are bad.
So far, it doesn't sound like the San Francisco tiger escape was an act of terrorism by an animal rights group.
And thankfully, the cougars in Manitowoc didn't harm any humans, nor was it necessary to harm the cougars.
In any case, only idiots would cut fencing to let wild animals escape a zoo and pose a threat to the public.
I don't think of that as an act of vandalism.
Defacing the cougars' habitat with grafitti is the work of vandals.
This had the potential to be deadly.
______________________
Zoo director says tiger wall was low
No comments:
Post a Comment