[Marxism] Escaped Tigers

[Charles Brown]

Today the newspaper reported that the wall is only 12.5 feet tall, not 18 (!) . Duh.


Charles


http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071228/NATION/712280351



Friday, December 28, 2007 
Tiger's wall was below standard
Zoo director said fence was 12.5 feet high, short of recommended 16.4 feet.
Jordan Robertson / Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO -- The director of the zoo where a teenager was killed by an escaped tiger acknowledged Thursday that the wall around the animal's pen is just 12 feet 5 inches high -- well below the height recommended by the main accrediting agency for the nation's zoos. 

San Francisco Zoo Director Manuel A. Mollinedo also admitted that it is becoming increasingly clear the 300-pound Siberian tiger leaped or climbed out of its open-air enclosure, perhaps by grabbing onto a ledge. 

According to the Association of Zoos & Aquariums, the walls around a tiger exhibit should be at least 16 feet 4 inches high. But Mollinedo said the nearly 70-year-old wall is 12 feet 5 inches, with what he described as a "moat" 33 feet across. 

Advertisement

  
 
He said safety inspectors had never raised any red flags about the wall's size. 

Mollinedo said the "moat" contains no water. He did not address whether that affected the tiger's ability to get out. 

On Wednesday, the zoo director said that the wall is 18 feet high and the moat 20 feet wide. Based on those earlier, incorrect estimates, animal experts expressed disbelief that a tiger in captivity could have made such a spectacular leap. 

AZA spokesman Steven Feldman said that the minimum height is just a guideline and that a zoo could still be deemed safe even if its wall were lower. 

Accreditation standards require "that the barriers be adequate to keep the animals and people apart from each other," Feldman said. 

Feldman would not comment on how hard it would be for a tiger to scale a 12-feet-5-inch wall. But Siberian tigers are known to have phenomenal strength, at least in the wild. 

Many other U.S. zoos have significantly higher walls around their tigers. 

The animal, a female named Tatiana, went on a rampage near closing time on Christmas Day, mauling three visitors before it was shot to death by police. Carlos Sousa Jr., 17, died and two brothers, ages 19 and 23, suffered severe bite and claw wounds. 

Police have declared the exhibit a crime scene. 

Police Chief Heather Fong said investigators had no information that anyone had put a leg over the railing, or that a shoe was found in the enclosure. She did not address whether the victims had teased the tiger. 



>>> Louis Proyect <lnp3 at PANIX.COM> 12/27/2007 1:06 PM >>>
Until the assassination of Benazir Bhutto occurred, the cable news 
networks were consumed with the news of a tiger escaping from its cage 
in the San Francisco zoo and killing one man and wounding two others. 
Today’s NY Times reported: