gorillamom

Time for bed. I forgot I have to drive from the city out into the country in the morning. At least I drive good in the snow. Spent a lot of time at Mt. Rainier. Love that mountain! Night all.

__________________

The Clock of life is wound but once,
And no man has the power,
To tell just when the hands will stop
On what day or what hour.
Now is the only time we have,
So live it with a will,
Don't wait until tomorrow,
The hands may then be still.

Lolli

That's just disgusting not to mention infuriating.

I'm glad to hear this from a former zoo employee - confirms what I believe/feel.

Kanadesaga

Sorry I'm on the Tiger's side in all of this.

I feel one day no one will know what a tiger is. Other than on film or perhaps a zoo or two.

__________________

SPRINGFIELD

Wow, this morning on the news it was showing how far that tiger leaped to clear the wall and the moat. Friggin impressive! Unbeleviable. Did the people who designed that enclosure have no idea what these animals are capable of? Also they found a shoe and some blood on top of the wall, which could mean that like in most of these cases, the animal was being provoked. I doubt that an animal like a tiger has the capacity to kill out of anger, she probably saw the young man as prey. And she acted in the way nature intended her to.

gorillamom

To be on the tiger's true side supporting them in a zoo is not support. There are not enough in zoos to even be breeding them. Geneticaly they are already dead as is the mountain gorilla. The Great Dian Fossey when she first started researching noticed deformities such as wall eye and webbed digits from inbreeding. When there is no genetic diversity it's basically over as we know them. They could mutate, but into what?

__________________

The Clock of life is wound but once,
And no man has the power,
To tell just when the hands will stop
On what day or what hour.
Now is the only time we have,
So live it with a will,
Don't wait until tomorrow,
The hands may then be still.

gorillamom

You have to remember these animals are nothing but muscle. I wish I could upload the video I have showing our female gorilla Jumoke scaling the very high wall. She did it using just the tips of her fingers putting her nails in the small cracks in the concrete. I can't tell you how many times I went on the roof to smoke and there she was. When they want out, they get out. In Jumoke's case she did it when we introduced her to a new male taking her from her natal family forthe first time. Then after several years and mating with him, she loved Congo, when hedied she climbed back over the wall, this time going down into the dry moat with sticks and made herself a ladder! Over the wall with a bunch of hotwire she went. I have a gorilla escapes after a fight on video. It's on VHS and I'm going to see how much it will cost to get it on DVD and upload it. I'm poor, so may take a while. By the way, never offer your body or it's part to a big cat. It's a snack for them. Also never turn your back on any big cat.
This is a feamle gorilla who didn't want to be in with Ivan at Zoo Atlanta. She's on the roof.

__________________

The Clock of life is wound but once,
And no man has the power,
To tell just when the hands will stop
On what day or what hour.
Now is the only time we have,
So live it with a will,
Don't wait until tomorrow,
The hands may then be still.

gorillamom

Now thet had a zoo keeper who actually said something truthful. Captive animals loose their natural instinct of fearing humans. Duh!

__________________

The Clock of life is wound but once,
And no man has the power,
To tell just when the hands will stop
On what day or what hour.
Now is the only time we have,
So live it with a will,
Don't wait until tomorrow,
The hands may then be still.

cronincal

real smart

Report: S.F. tiger may have been taunted
By MAY WONG, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 24 minutes ago

Police are reportedly investigating whether the young men mauled by a tiger at the San Francisco Zoo taunted the animal, a possibility the father of one of the victims said Thursday he hoped wasn't true.

"I don't think my son would do something like taunt animals," Carlos Sousa told ABC's "Good Morning America." "It's unbelievable, but only the evidence can prove that. And right now I can't say much."

His son, Carlos Sousa Jr., 17, was one of three men attacked by a Siberian tiger around closing time on Christmas. Police shot the 300-pound animal to death after it killed Sousa and severely mauled two brothers, ages 19 and 23.

The brothers were in stable condition Thursday at San Francisco General Hospital and were expected to be released within a few days, said Dr. William Schechter, chief of surgery. They suffered deep bites and claw wounds on their heads, necks, arms and hands, but were expected to recover fully.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, police found a shoe and blood in an area between the gate and the edge of the animal's 25- to 30-foot-wide moat, raising the possibility that one of the victims dangled a leg or other body part over the edge of the moat.

Police could not confirm the Chronicle's report to The Associated Press on Thursday.

"I don't think this deserves to happen to anybody — taunting or not taunting," Carlos Sousa told ABC. "Animals should be protected from the people and the people should be protected from the animals."

Police Chief Heather Fong said Wednesday the department opened a criminal investigation to "determine if there was human involvement in the tiger getting out or if the tiger was able to get out on its own."

The zoo, which remained closed Thursday, had no surveillance cameras at the tiger exhibit, which means investigators will have to rely on other evidence to piece together how the tiger escaped, police said.

One zoo official insisted the tiger did not get out through an open door and must have climbed or leaped out. But Jack Hanna, former director of the Columbus Zoo, said such a leap would be an unbelievable feat and "virtually impossible."

Instead, he speculated that visitors could have been fooling around and might have taunted the animal and perhaps even helped it get out by, say, putting a board in the moat.

Ron Magill, a spokesman at the Miami Metro Zoo, said it was unlikely a zoo tiger could make such a leap, even with a running start.

"Captive tigers aren't nearly in the kind of shape that wild tigers have to be in to survive," he said. He said taunting can definitely make an animal more aggressive, but "whether it makes it more likely to get out of an exhibit is purely speculative."

The same tiger, a 4-year-old female named Tatiana, ripped the flesh off a zookeeper's arm just before Christmas a year ago while the woman was feeding the animal through the bars. A state investigation faulted the zoo, which installed better equipment at the Lion House, where the big cats are kept.

Zoo director Manuel Mollinedo said Wednesday he gave no thought to destroying Tatiana after the 2006 incident, because "the tiger was acting as a normal tiger does." As for whether Tatiana showed any warning signs before Tuesday's attack, Mollinedo said: "She seemed to be very well-adjusted into that exhibit."

It was unclear how long the tiger had been loose before it was killed. The three visitors were attacked around closing time Tuesday on the 125-acre zoo grounds. Four officers hunted down and shot the animal after police got a 911 call from a zoo employee.

The zoo has a response team that can shoot animals. But zoo officials and police described the initial moments after the escape as chaotic.

The first attack happened right outside the tiger's enclosure — Sousa died at the scene. Another was about 300 yards away, in front of the zoo cafe. The police chief said the animal was mauling one of the survivors, and when officers yelled at it to stop, it turned toward them and they opened fire.

Only then did they see the third victim, police said.

The two injured men, 19- and 23-year-old brothers from San Jose, were in stable condition Wednesday at San Francisco General Hospital. They suffered deep bites and claw wounds on their heads, necks, arms and hands, said Dr. Rochelle Dicker, a surgeon. She said they were expected to recover fully.

Sousa's parents told the AP they didn't know why their son went to the zoo Tuesday, but it should have been a fun Christmas Day activity.
"It's not a safe place for kids," said his mother, Marilza Sousa. "People go there to have a good time, not to get killed."

Associated Press writers Jordan Robertson, Louise Chu and Terence Chea in San Francisco and Carla K. Johnson in Chicago contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press

gorillamom

That's why zoos need to stop breeding to keep themselves in business.

__________________

The Clock of life is wound but once,
And no man has the power,
To tell just when the hands will stop
On what day or what hour.
Now is the only time we have,
So live it with a will,
Don't wait until tomorrow,
The hands may then be still.

Refuge51

Exactly...it's not like a puppy. When a wild animal, especially a carnivore, gets used to being fed by humans, he will not look at you as his friend, but as his captor and sometimes as his food.


By the way, the reason the zoos don't feed them a lot is the animals live longer with less food. Longer in captivity