San Francisco Tiger Attack Discussion

[Oswegowind 17]

Date: 12-25-07

Time: 1700hrs (Pacific)

Location: San Francisco Zoo

Departments: SFPD, SFFD

Description: Tiger escaped it's grotto enclosure and attacked (3) victims as the park was closing. SFPD arrived and surrounded the tiger as it attacked the third victim. Using lights and sirens from thier radio cars, the officers distracted the tiger from the victim and shot the animal numerous times with thier handguns.

Writer: Truck4

This is an odd event, how many times has this happened? I don't know the answer. However, I thought it interesting to hear that this had occurred given the fact that my family and I are members of the WCS (wildlife conservation society) aka The Bronx Zoo and others... We were visiting the zoo last summer and went to the Tiger Mountain Enrichment Program. Here we saw the trainers interacting with the animals through a fence. After the event was over I approached the trainers, told them what I did for a living and where and asked them what should be done if the Tiger were ever to escape, either from the zoo or from some idiot that may have one at home (this does happen!). They told me that the animal must immediately be destroyed, don't even think of trying to dart it. At the Bronx Zoo, they immediately deploy trainers with high powered rifles and the plan is to keep the animal within the zoo's confines. I don't know how many shots from a 9mm Glock a Tiger can take, but it is way more than I could...LOL Hopefully none of us will ever have to be on either end of an incident such as this!

So what if the Tiger gets out? Just keep shooting it until it is DOWN!

Now, my only remaining question is; Do you allow the Tiger to maul someone and then chance when it is done or if you can distract it to shoot at it, or do you just shoot even if it is eating someone? I mean, for the better good right, I would think you would just have to shoot, if the person getting eaten gets hit, it is tough, but better for the greater good, no? Let me know what you think...

Edited December 27, 2007 by Oswegowind

[Truck4 48]

NYPD ESU has dealt with tigers twice in recent memory. Once in Queens when a tiger escaped from a fly-by-night circus and once in a Halem project building where Tiger Man had one as a pet. Just give it time, Chris, that job will come in on a late tour one night.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/01/nyregion...1asLMuMvXSYDMFQ

[Goose 188]

From what i heard on the radio a bit ago, the PD is treating the area as a crime scene. Apparently, they found a shoe and possibly some shoe prints in the cage floor and one of the going theories is that either someone went into the cage itself or was dangling a limb into the pit antagonizing the cat. If that is the case, they may be up for the Darwin award... :\

[smwells 7]

Goose, You beat me to it. We may have a last minute entry for the 2007 awards.. The question to be answered is which one of the 3 people.

Over and above the stupidity of putting your limb in harms way, the question is how did the tiger get out? 20ft moat, 18 ft wall.. we are still missing some data to piece this together.. Hopefully the injured will shed some light...

[x635 4,066]

It would be sad that they had to kill this beautiful, endagered animal because of some moron.

I think the punishment should be that the person(s) who commited the act are still alive, that they be dropped off where this cat normally lives, and see if they can outrun the tiger then.

Tiger's aren't meant to be caged anyways. Obviously, regardless of the situation, this cat wanted out. Another reason why I hate Zoos.

[mmwolf65 1]

Did anyone else see the video of the hospital employee (Nurse?) wheeling the gurney around the ambulance and into the ER? I assume (hate to do this) the medics were onboard with another pt.

[RescueKujo 130]

Police: Tiger attack victim was drinking, admitted taunting

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- One of the three victims of San Francisco Zoo tiger attack was intoxicated and admitted to yelling and waving at the animal while standing atop the railing of the big cat enclosure, police said in court documents filed Thursday.

Paul Dhaliwal, 19, told the father of Carlos Sousa Jr., 17, who was killed, that the three yelled and waved at the tiger but insisted they never threw anything into its pen to provoke the cat, according to a search warrant affidavit obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle.

"As a result of this investigation, (police believe) that the tiger may have been taunted/agitated by its eventual victims," according to Inspector Valerie Matthews, who prepared the affidavit. Police believe that "this factor contributed to the tiger escaping from its enclosure and attacking its victims," she said.

Sousa's father, Carlos Sousa Sr., said Dhaliwal told him the three stood on a 3-foot-tall metal railing a few feet from the edge of the tiger moat. "When they got down they heard a noise in the bushes, and the tiger was jumping out of the bushes on him (Paul Dhaliwal)," the documents said.

Police found a partial shoe print that matched Paul Dhaliwal's on top of the railing, Matthews said in the documents. Watch how a victim's desperate 911 call was handled »

The papers said Paul Dhaliwal told Sousa that no one was dangling his legs over the enclosure. Authorities believe the tiger leaped or climbed out of the enclosure, which had a wall 4 feet shorter than the recommended minimum.

The affidavit also cites multiple reports of a group of young men taunting animals at the zoo, the Chronicle reported.

Mark Geragos, an attorney for the Dhaliwal brothers, did not immediately return a call late Thursday by The Associated Press for comment. He has repeatedly said they did not taunt the tiger.

Calls to Sousa and Michael Cardoza, an attorney for the Sousa family, also weren't returned.

Toxicology results for Dhaliwal showed that his blood alcohol level was 0.16 -- twice the legal limit for driving, according to the affidavit. His 24-year-old brother Kulbir Dhaliwal and Sousa also had alcohol in their blood but within the legal limit, Matthews wrote.

All three also had marijuana in their systems, Matthews said. Kulbir Dhaliwal told police that the three had smoked pot and each had "a couple shots of vodka" before leaving San Jose for the zoo on Christmas Day the affidavit said.

Police found a small amount of marijuana in Kulbir Dhaliwal's 2002 BMW, which the victims rode to the zoo, as well as a partially filled bottle of vodka, according to court documents.

Investigators also recovered messages and images from the cell phones, but apparently nothing incriminating in connection with the tiger attack, the Chronicle reported.

Sam Singer, a spokesman for the zoo, said he had not seen the documents but believed the victims did taunt the animal, even though they claim they hadn't.

"Those brothers painted a completely different picture to the public and the press," Singer said. "Now it's starting to come out that what they said is not true."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/01/18/tiger.att...f=ib_topstories

Someone's got a lot of explaining to do : :

[RescueKujo 130]

I don't know if it made the news back east...

The 911 audio of the phone calls have been released...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080116/ap_on_...kttBcMQnEWs0NUE

Tiger caller told 911 help was too slow

SAN FRANCISCO - "It's a matter of life and death!" the caller screamed, but a 911 dispatcher said there was a delay: Paramedics needed to make sure the tiger loose in the San Francisco Zoo wasn't going to attack them.

Either Paul or Kulbir Dhaliwal made the 911 call from outside a zoo cafe on Dec. 25, asking that a helicopter be brought in to rescue his brother, according to a recording of the call released Tuesday.

By the time the call heard on the nearly seven-minute recording ends, the escaped Siberian tiger already had killed the Dhaliwals' friend, 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr., outside the animal's enclosure and was creeping closer to the cafe.

"At the cafe, we have the tiger!" an officer shouts into his radio just after 5:27 p.m., according to a recording of police dispatch traffic, about four minutes after the call between the brother and the 911 dispatcher ends. "We have the tiger attacking the victim!"

Less than a minute later, another call comes over the radio to stop shooting.

"We have the cat. We shot the cat," an officer says. "The victim is being attended to."

A separate 911 call placed by a zoo employee who was talking simultaneously with colleagues on a two-way radio revealed that zoo employees initially expressed disbelief that a big cat could have escaped, according to another recording released Tuesday.

The unidentified male zoo employee called 911 at 5:05 p.m. to relay a report from a female employee who encountered the frantic brothers outside the cafe.

"I don't know if they are on drugs or not," the woman is overheard saying on his radio. "They are screaming about an animal that has attacked them and there isn't an animal out. He is talking about a third person, but I don't see a third person."

The man then tries to relay her remarks, when the female employee interjects: "He is saying he got attacked by a lion."

The man is heard on the 911 call, saying, "That is virtually impossible. ... I can't imagine how he could have possibly gotten attacked by a lion. He would have had to have gotten in. I just can't see it."

"I think this guy is on something. He is really agitated," the woman says.

"They don't know if he got attacked by a lion. They are both very agitated and they might be on drugs," the man tells the dispatcher.

At the same time, one of the victims was on another line with a 911 dispatcher, desperately pleading for help and begging to know why it was taking so long to get it, according to a recording of the call.

"I understand that, but at the same time we have to make sure the paramedics don't get chewed out, because if the paramedics get hurt then nobody's going to help you," the dispatcher says.

Seconds later, the brother shouts, "My brother's about to die out here!"

The 911 dispatcher tells him to calm down before the frustrated caller asks, "Can you fly a helicopter out here? Because I don't see a (expletive) ambulance."

Judging by the synopsis of the attacks given by police, the older brother, Kulbir, who was the last of the three victims, likely made the call. The brothers suffered serious bite and claw wounds.

At 5:10 p.m. — five minutes after the first 911 call was made — word reaches the male zoo employee that an animal indeed was loose. He starts telling other visitors that they must leave the grounds immediately.

"We have a Code One. They say they have a tiger out," he tells the dispatcher.

Zoo officials say the tiger had climbed or jumped over the wall surrounding its pen. They have acknowledged that the wall was 4 feet shorter than the recommended minimum height.

The extent of Sousa's injuries became known at 5:15 p.m., when either a paramedic or another zoo employee is heard over the radio reporting a fatality. "This person needs help now," he says.

Michael Cardoza, a personal injury lawyer hired by Sousa's parents, said Tuesday that his clients had not yet listened to the recordings.

Cardoza said he was struck by how cogent the brother who made the 911 call sounded, despite his obvious terror and the initial incredulity of zoo employees.

"That is tantamount to me going up to a cop saying, 'There is a guy with a gun behind our building and he just shot somebody,' and the cop saying, 'Are you on drugs?'" Cardoza said. "Why don't you go check it out first, and then question the reliability of the people who are reporting it, especially when one of them is standing there bleeding?"

But zoo spokesman Sam Singer said the recordings reinforced the zoo director's position that staff "acted heroically in guiding emergency responders to assist the two brothers, as well as to the body of Carlos Sousa Jr."

Also Tuesday, police obtained a search warrant to examine cell phones and car belonging to the Dhaliwal brothers in their criminal investigation, Sgt. Neville Gittens said. The items have been the focus of both police and city officials, who believe they could contain evidence that the victims provoked the tiger in the moments leading to the attack.

Mark Geragos, an attorney representing the brothers, has insisted they did not taunt the animal. He did not return a call for comment late Tuesday.

A hearing on whether the city attorney's office may examine the items in a separate civil case was scheduled for Wednesday.

[Oswegowind 17]

These idiots taunt a tiger, get mauled, and now want to sue because the paramedics took to long to get there! They should shoot all 3 of the remaining Darwins! I am sure they are on PETA's list!