Tatiana[4]: Stupid primate tricks

The San Francisco Chronicle, as one might expect, has the most detailed write-up:

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.

The injured victims fled, leaving a trail of blood, which police believe the tiger followed for 300 yards up a zoo pathway. As the tiger cornered and attacked one of the brothers, four police officers arrived, distracted the animal and shot it dead.

[...]

Zoo director Manuel Mollinedo said it was also likely that the animal was provoked.

"Somebody created a situation that really agitated her and gave her some sort of a method to break out," Mollinedo said. "There is no possible way the cat could have made it out of there in a single leap. I would surmise that there was help.

"A couple of feet dangling over the edge could possibly have done it."

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.

However, police Sgt. Neville Gittens maintained that there was no reason to think that the victims were taunting the tiger.

One wonders what Sgt. Gittens has been smoking. For that matter, one wonders what the kids had been smoking. I probably ought to stop calling them "victims" now -- as far as I can tell the only innocent victim in this story is Tatania.

Additional articles in the Chron are here, [editorial] here, here [Outrage at City Hall], and here. The opening quote in the latter article just about sums it up:

"She was everything that a tiger is supposed to be," said big-cat expert Ronald Tilson. "She was essentially shot and killed for being a tiger."

It also recounts an alleged incident in 1997 where the tiger leaped across the moat and got a paw onto the dirt on the other side before slipping off. Not verified, at this point, but a leg over the side could have been all the help she needed.

More news: LA Times, BBC, Times Online, Seattle Times, Star-Telegram [has map], NY Times [points out that New Yorkers are in much more danger from neighbors with exotic pets]:

While tigers kept in zoos are typically well secured, there are other settings in which the animals have been a menace, or worse. In October 2003, Roy Horn of the magic and tiger-training team of Siegfried and Roy was mauled by a 400-pound white tiger during a show in Las Vegas. Mr. Horn had worked with the tiger for years, but is still undergoing rehabilitation and walks with a cane.

Just a day after the attack on Mr. Horn, New Yorkers had their own walk on the wild side when a 400-pound Bengal tiger and a five-foot-long caiman were discovered in an apartment in Harlem.

The police were alerted after the owner of the apartment, Antoine Yates, called to say he had been bitten by a pit bull. When they arrived, officers talked to neighbors who complained about large amounts of urine and a strong smell coming from the apartment.

To subdue the tiger, a police sniper rappelled down the side of the building and, as the tiger roared in the background, fired tranquilizer darts through an open fifth-floor window.

Keeping tigers in such confined spaces might be rare, and even cruel, but plenty of Americans feel comfortable keeping these animals in their backyards. Several years ago, there were more tigers in private hands in Texas than in all the nation's accredited zoos, according to Palmer Krantz III, the chairman of the board at the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

Stupid primates, indeed.

Piles and piles

Today I began the annual ritual called "Sorting the Charities". It's a real pain for me to keep track of charity contributions -- many of them send a request every month! That's a lot of checkbook to check back through, and they're obviously hoping I'll miss one. (We'll ignore the fact that maybe if I paid in January, they wouldn't keep bugging me all year.)

Anyway, my technique for coping with this deluge of begging letters is simply to toss them onto a big pile and sort through them in late December, in time to write a big batch of checks during the holiday season, when I'm feeling generous.

Eventually, of course, I have to decant the pile into a box before it reaches critical mass and explodes onto the office floor. Last year it took two boxes. This year it took three.

Rather than take over a large chunk of the living room for a folding table, as I did last year, I went out to the garage and found a 2'x4' chunk of half-inch oak plywood, and set it onto a corner of the office counter weighted down with the UPS that I took out of service last night and turned off while it's waiting for a new battery. It's the corner normally occupied by the guest computer, but nobody is likely to be using it until Saturday at the earliest.

I have gotten through the oldest box, and the plywood is currently covered with some 30-odd piles of envelopes. There are a few charities that don't bother putting a logo or a return address on their envelopes -- those go straight into the recycling bag, as do the ones I know I'm not going to support this year, but that somehow slipped past me on the initial mail sort. Folks, if you want my money, you'll make it easy for me to tell who you are.

I think what I'm going to do next is go through the last box and the small pile that's accumulated in the last few weeks. Then I can give the middle box a cursory run-through in case I missed anything.

Maybe next year I'll make a file folder for every charity, keep careful track, and pay a few every month. It would make a lot of sense. Bets, anyone?

10:52pm Update: done sorting. Now I just have to find the most appropriate (not always the most recent) item to pay in each stack, possibly decide what else to drop, and write checks. Tomorrow. I also have to go through my other piles of procrastinated mail and see what needs urgent attention; fortunately these are much smaller.

Tatiana[5]: measurements and memorials

According to this article in the Chron (taken up by several others, including NY Times, Guardian Unlimited), the wall surrounding Tatiana's enclosure was measured at only 12.5 feet high. That's a lot less than the 20' zoo officials originally said it was, and 4' less than the 16.5' recommended for safety. It's also less than what's written on the blueprints. Apparently the kids weren't the only stupid primates involved.

Of course, since that part of the zoo was built in the 1940s, it might be difficult to pin the blame on anybody in particular.

Meanwhile, Wired points to a memorial page on MySpace. Like most MySpace pages it's garish and plays music at you, but I guess that's appropriate for a 17-year-old.

I wonder whether anyone will make a memorial page for Tatiana.

[added 10:47 -- there's a Wikipedia page for Tatiana.]