SOURCE: CNN

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Investigators probe killer tiger's escape at zoo

SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- Authorities have searched the San Francisco Zoo four times and are certain that there are no more victims of a Siberian tiger that escaped from her pen and mauled to death one person and attacked two others Tuesday.

"There were no other tigers that were lose in the zoo and no more victims," San Francisco Police Chief Heather Fong said Wednesday.

Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, searchers used infrared and heat-sensing tools and also walked the area between where the tiger is believed to have gotten out of her cage and a cafe -- a route of one-eighth of a mile -- where the attacks took place.

It's unclear how long the 300-pound female tiger was out of her cage, Fong said.

Police are taking statements from anyone who might have seen the animal.

Police shot and killed the tiger Tuesday as she attacked her second and third victims, Fong said.

The two survivors, both men, were in stable condition Wednesday, according to a surgeon at San Francisco General Hospital.

"They rested overnight after they were taken to the operating room for cleaning and closure of their wounds," Dr. Rochelle Dicker told reporters. "Right now, I can tell you that they're in good spirits, and they look absolutely fantastic."

A medical examiner hadn't identified the deceased male by Wednesday morning, investigator Tim Hellman told The Associated Press.

The victim was not carrying identification, and no one had called asking about him, Hellman told the AP.

The zoo was closed Wednesday. It is expected to reopen Thursday, said zoo director Manuel Mollinedo, but the Lion House, the zoo's big-cat exhibit, will remain closed "until we get a better understanding of what actually happened."

Dicker said the two surviving victims would stay at the hospital Wednesday and doctors would assess whether they needed to stay longer.

The physician said the biggest concern was infection, and the two would remain on antibiotics after their release. She said they were doing well because emergency medical service crews got them to the hospital so quickly Tuesday, and because of their good health and ages -- 19 and 23.

San Francisco Fire Department Lt. Mindy Talmadge said authorities were notified of the escaped tiger about 15 minutes after the zoo's 5 p.m. PT closing time Tuesday.

"Apparently right around closing time -- there was a pen with four tigers in it -- one of the tigers got out," Talmadge said. "The tiger went into a cafe at the zoo and attacked a patron. That person ended up dying at the scene."

Police arrived as the animal attacked two other patrons, Talmadge said.

"They shot the tiger, and the tiger is deceased," she said.

Talmadge said the 125-acre, 78-year-old zoo was locked down and all the facility's other animals were accounted for, including three other tigers that had been in the same enclosure with the escaped animal.

The tiger, named Tatiana, did not get out through an open door, Robert Jenkins, the zoo's director of animal care and conservation, told the AP.

Tatiana was held in an enclosure that has a 15-foot moat and 20-foot walls, Mollinedo said.

"There was no way out through the door," Jenkins told the AP. "The animal appears to have climbed or otherwise leapt out of the enclosure."

The San Francisco Chronicle reported the tiger was the same animal that chewed the flesh off a keeper's arm in an attack last December during a public feeding demonstration. Read about other escapes and attacks by captive animals

Mollinedo said that during the incident last year, Tatiana "was acting like a normal tiger" and that the zoo modified procedures to increase safety.

California's Division of Occupational Safety and Health later determined that the zoo was at fault because of hazardous conditions in the Lion House and a lack of specialized safety training for employees, according to the Chronicle. The Lion House was closed for more than six months after the mauling, the paper reported, and the zoo made changes that the state safety division ordered.

Along with Siberian tigers, an endangered species, the zoo has rarer and smaller Sumatran tigers.

The Association of Zoos and Aquariums issued a statement expressing sympathy for the victims and support for the zoo.

"The San Francisco Zoo is a great zoo, it's an accredited AZA member in good standing, and it has our support during this difficult time," the statement said.

"AZA-accredited zoos are safe. Until this incident, there had not been a visitor fatality resulting from an animal escape at an AZA-accredited zoo."

The group said the zoo's independent Accreditation Commission would review the tiger attack. E-mail to a friend

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