Zoo safety questioned again after near-escapes of snow leopard and polar bear

[RamboLiberal]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

The safety of visitors and workers at the San Francisco Zoo continues to be called into question, as new information surfaces today that a polar bear and snow leopard came close to escaping from their enclosures over the past week.

Several zookeepers have told The Chronicle that a female polar bear scaled the wall of her enclosure on Jan. 3, nearly escaping and prompting the zoo to raise the height of the exhibit wall the next day. A week later on Thursday, a snow leopard chewed through a temporary enclosure, according to a zoo spokesman.

Zoo officials today disputed the zookeeper's characterization of the incidents, saying the wild animals were acting normally and that neither posed a threat to zookeepers or the public.

The problems come less than three weeks after a tiger leaped out of its outdoor grotto on Christmas Day and attacked three people, killing 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr. of San Jose and injuring two of his friends before being shot to death by police. Several zookeepers told The Chronicle today that the latest incidents made them fearful for their safety and called into question whether visitors are safe.



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/flat/archive/2008/01/11/chronicle/archive/2008/01/11/MNGQUDP11.html?tsp=1

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SF Zoo is going to be paying out a ton of money on the lawsuits I have a feeling! And this PR guy Singer sounds to me like a real *ss. Sounds like it's also time for the zoo director to be fired.

In other news on the case:

Evidence in car may point to drug use, tiger taunting, documents state

The San Francisco City Attorney's Office contends the car of the two brothers who survived the tiger attack at San Francisco Zoo contains "apparent evidence of drug use" and may have evidence linking the men to objects found inside the tiger's enclosure, according to court documents.

That could help show the victims pelted or taunted the tiger that escaped and killed a San Jose teen, the documents state. The survivors have denied any wrongdoing.

While a police investigation into such accusations has been described as "inactive" by city officials, any evidence that the survivors teased the big cat could be used to defend the city and zoo against any lawsuits filed by the victims, said a spokesman for the City Attorney's Office.

Also in the new documents is an account by a zoo security guard, who said two young men in hooded sweatshirts sought to take the car from the zoo parking lot the day after the Christmas Day attack. They were denied entry by security guards, according to a statement a guard filed Thursday in San Francisco Superior Court.

http://www.sfgate.com/flat/archive/2008/01/11/chronicle/archive/2008/01/11/BAD9UDG16.html?tsp=1

[Bicoastal]

1. If it wasn't so disturbing...

...you could write a fairly decent Monty Python sketch on the premise of a zoo with ABSOLUTELY no clue of how to keep the animals in.

John Cleese as the unflappable zoo director, Michael Palin as a dimwitted lion specialist, and Terry Jones as a slightly nonplussed visitor, and Eric Idle in drag as the visitor's wife who gets mauled repeatedly.

Terry Gilliam in a Gorilla suit rounds out the cast.

[grasswire]

2. what's that zoo movie with Kevin Kline?

Can't recall the name of it.

[orleans]

11. french kiss? in and out? life as a house? dave? grand canyon? soapdish?

fish called wanda? big chill?

oh wait--was the question kevin kline movies orleans likes?

[grasswire]

14. Fierce Creatures!

That's it.

[orleans]

15. (yeah, yeah, i know....i was just playing) n/t

[Tesha]

3. You've never seen "Fierce Creatures", I take it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fierce_Creatures

[uppityperson]

4. So many people taunting so many different animals.(zoo officials-polar bear)

:sarcasm: They need to make sure the visitors and animals are safe.

Edited because I read the article and found this:

"More frightening perhaps was the near-escape of a female polar bear named Ulu, according to sources. Ulu is the zoo's only wild-born polar bear and is considered too unpredictable to be kept with the zoo's two other polar bears.

Separate zookeepers have told The Chronicle that the animal, which weighs more than 600 pounds, nearly climbed over a wall of her exhibit after zoo officials pelted her with empty tranquilizer darts in a misguided effort to harass her into a night enclosure. The incident happened around 9 p.m. the night before last week's major storm. The bear's keepers were not called in to help, the sources said.

Ulu was forced back down the exhibit wall by officials who turned a fire hose on her, the sources said. She had never scaled the wall before, the sources said."

WTF? Sounds like the zoo and zookeepers need some checking up on also.

[RamboLiberal]

5. Wonder if the zookeepers did the same thing to the tiger

Taitiana at night? Perhaps that's why she was so pissed off she climbed the wall that night. Maybe this was an ongoing thing and if the young men who were attacked threw something at her she decided enough was enough!

[slackmaster]

6. There's no leopards like snow leopards

Gratuitous cat pic.

[Xithras]

7. At least a snow leapord won't attack a person.

Gorgeous animals, but they're fairly small for a big cat and won't take on anything as large as a human.

[Sequoia]

8. Thanks. My wallpaper for the day.

I bet that tiger who was shot tried to escape before.

[NashVegas]

9. Except Cloud Leopards

[slackmaster]

10. We have both at the San Diego Zoo!

And a bunch of other cool kittehs.

[Drum]

13. like no leopards I know.

everything about them is appealing!

[Drum]

12. Is it some kind of omen?

:scared:

[Retrograde]

16. They had a monkey escape in the mid-90s AND mid-80s

In 1985 a Patas monkey in a supposedly escape-proof enclosure decided she didn't like her display-mates so she took her baby and left. Apparently she didn't read the part about her species not being able to jump that high. They spent over a month on the loose. I don't remember the 1994 monkey escape.

There've been other http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/12/27/MNEJU4SVN.DTL"> escape attempts.

[daleo]

17. OK, who was taunting the polar bears?

And getting the snow leopards drunk.

[uppityperson]

18. The zookeepers, says in the article in OP. (polar bears) eom

[catchnrelease]

19. Not the keepers

"Separate zookeepers have told The Chronicle that the animal, which weighs more than 600 pounds, nearly climbed over a wall of her exhibit after zoo officials pelted her with empty tranquilizer darts in a misguided effort to harass her into a night enclosure. The incident happened around 9 p.m. the night before last week's major storm. The bears' keepers were not called in to help, the sources said."

Article says "zoo officials", which could be veterinary staff or supervisory staff above the keeper level. And as empty tranquilizer darts were used, I'm betting it was vet staff. It specifically says that her keepers were not involved.