SF Chronicle: Did Tiger Victim Dangle Leg over Enclosure?

[RamboLiberal]

San Francisco police are investigating the possibility that one of the victims in the fatal tiger mauling on Christmas Day climbed over a waist-high fence and then dangled a leg or other body part over the edge of a moat that kept the big cat away from the public, sources close to the investigation said Wednesday.

The minimal evidence found at the scene included a shoe and blood in an area between the gate and the edge of the 25- to 30-foot-wide moat, raising questions about what role, if any, the victims might have had in accidentally helping the animal escape.

The three victims, all young men from San Jose, were visiting the zoo together. They were all present just outside the tiger's grotto when the tiger escaped, killed 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr. with a savage slash to the throat, and injured the other two. The names of the survivors, who are brothers ages 19 and 23, have not been released.

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Police sources said a footprint had been found on a metal fence, suggesting that someone had climbed the fence to get closer to the big cats. Authorities were looking into whether the tiger escaped by latching on to a leg or body part.

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Sources said pinecones and sticks that were found in the moat might have been thrown at the animal. Those items could not have landed in the grotto naturally, they said.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/27/MNEJU4SVN.DTL&tsp=1

[soothsayer]

1. It's not nice to fool Mother Nature... Now the tiger and that kid are dead.

Senseless. Stupid.

[zbdent]

3. you want to talk stupid, I heard a radio station report (RW of course) in their news segment

that the "tiger refused to follow orders" by the police ...

Gee, if a tiger would follow "orders" by someone it didn't know, don't you think it would have been hard to keep the tiger safe in the cage? Kids yelling at it ... "Hey, bite that other tiger!" "Jump!" etc ...

[Richard Steele]

2. Sounds like they may have created the situation, doesn't it?

It's a shame the tiger had to die over it.

[WilliamPitt]

4. Darwin strikes again.

"Here kitty kitty...heh, stupid cat...here ki-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!"

*growl*

[DinahMoeHum]

7. Yep, another candidate for the "Darwin Award". . .

And, I'm sorry, but if you piss off a Big Cat, you'll deserve to have your head ripped off.

My sympathy is with the tiger.

[Annces]

5. It is horrible that a human died

But this animal was a prisoner in a horrible dream.

[TwilightGardener]

6. I felt bad for both victim and cat. Now it's mostly just the cat.