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Tiger killed after provocation
Source: Agencies |
February 14, 2011, Monday
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Print Edition
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A FEMALE Siberian tiger killed in a hail of police gunfire after fatally mauling a man at San Francisco Zoo on Christmas Day 2007 was likely provoked into leaping and clawing out of its enclosure, a federal investigator has said.
The tiger named Tatiana killed 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr and injured his friends, brothers Paul and Kulbir Dhaliwal, leaving claw marks etched in the asphalt and claw fragments in the bushes outside its pen. Claw marks were also discovered near the top of the enclosure wall, which was lower than federal safety standards dictate, showing that the big cat was able to get enough leverage to pull itself out.
"It appears the tiger was able to jump from the bottom of the dry moat to the top of the wall, and gain enough purchase over the top to pull herself out over the moat wall," wrote Laurie Gage, a tiger expert who investigated the scene for the United States Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, which oversees the nation's zoos.
"With my knowledge of tiger behavior I cannot -imagine a tiger trying to jump out of its enclosure unless it was provoked," Gage wrote in the December 27, 2007, draft of her report.
That statement was stricken from the final version of the report because it was "irrelevant from an Animal Welfare Act enforcement standpoint," said David Sacks, a -spokesman for APHIS. Whether or not the tiger was provoked has long been a point of contention.
After sitting with its prey for a short time, Gage wrote that Tatiana likely followed the Dhaliwals' blood trail for about 300 yards (275 meters) to where it resumed attacks.
The tiger named Tatiana killed 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr and injured his friends, brothers Paul and Kulbir Dhaliwal, leaving claw marks etched in the asphalt and claw fragments in the bushes outside its pen. Claw marks were also discovered near the top of the enclosure wall, which was lower than federal safety standards dictate, showing that the big cat was able to get enough leverage to pull itself out.
"It appears the tiger was able to jump from the bottom of the dry moat to the top of the wall, and gain enough purchase over the top to pull herself out over the moat wall," wrote Laurie Gage, a tiger expert who investigated the scene for the United States Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, which oversees the nation's zoos.
"With my knowledge of tiger behavior I cannot -imagine a tiger trying to jump out of its enclosure unless it was provoked," Gage wrote in the December 27, 2007, draft of her report.
That statement was stricken from the final version of the report because it was "irrelevant from an Animal Welfare Act enforcement standpoint," said David Sacks, a -spokesman for APHIS. Whether or not the tiger was provoked has long been a point of contention.
After sitting with its prey for a short time, Gage wrote that Tatiana likely followed the Dhaliwals' blood trail for about 300 yards (275 meters) to where it resumed attacks.
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