By Lisa Fernandez
 

COURT FILING SAYS CITY IS BLAMELESS IN FATAL MAULING

San Francisco’s city attorney denies the city was in the wrong the day two San Jose brothers were mauled by a tiger at the zoo.

In a brief set of documents signed May 8, City Attorney Dennis Herrera and adjuster Joe Abad said there is “no indication of liability” by the city and county in the Christmas Day tiger attack that killed Carlos Sousa Jr. and injured Amritpal “Paul” and Kulbir Dhaliwal.

The Dhaliwal brothers on March 26 filed a claim for damages against San Francisco - a first step to a lawsuit.

Herrera instead referred the brothers to the San Francisco Zoological Society, the non-profit organization that runs the zoo, which is on city land.

City attorney spokesman Matt Dorsey said this “deny and refer” is routine, adding that the zoological society is insured. A zoo representative was unavailable for immediate comment.

No one was charged with a crime after the attack by a 250-pound Siberian tiger named Tatiana, but authorities said they believe the tiger was provoked. It is unknown how Tatiana escaped from the enclosure. Police shot and killed the tiger.

Dorsey said Sousa’s family has not filed a claim.

The Dhaliwals, represented by powerhouse attorneys Mark Geragos and Shepard Kopp, have six months to file a lawsuit. Neither attorney was available for comment.

In their claim, the Dhaliwals accused the public relations firm of Sam Singer, hired by the zoo, of making false statements about them after the
attack. The claim also states that San Francisco and the zoo should have been able to prevent the tiger’s escape.
At the time of the attack, the retaining wall in the tiger grotto was about four feet shorter than industry standards, and the zoo has spent $1.7 million on safety renovations since the attack. A national group that accredits zoos concluded in a report that poor training and short staffing added to the tragedy.

Since the tiger attack, Paul Dhaliwal has also been arrested on unrelated charges that he stole electronic equipment and video games at Target stores in San Leandro, Hayward and Livermore between March 24 and March 27.

By Steve Chawkins

SAN FRANCISCO — Under glowering skies today, visitors started streaming back into the San Francisco Zoo, which reopened nine days after a fatal tiger attack.

Within minutes, several visitors had placed bouquets and other mementos at a makeshift shrine just inside the zoo’s entrance.

A zoo spokeswoman said memorials would be welcome for both Carlos Sousa Jr., the San Jose man who died, and for Tatiana, the 4-year-old Siberian tiger who was shot by police after mauling Sousa and two friends who survived.

“Tatiana was always friendly,” said Susan Pettit, a Santa Clara homemaker who gingerly set down photographs, a stuffed animal and flowers in the tiger’s memory.

“The big cats were like my own kids,” said Pettit, who has visited the zoo once a week for three years. “I loved them all.”

A police investigation is aimed at determining just what prompted Tatiana to vault over the 12 1/2 -foot barrier around her enclosure.

The lions and tigers will be off-limits to the public until the expected completion of a higher fence in 30 days.

Mark Geragos, an attorney for the two brothers who survived, has denied speculation that the group provoked the animal. However, a report in the San Francisco Chronicle today quoted a visitor who said she saw a group of four young men taunting the lions the afternoon of the attack.

SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) — Police are investigating whether several items found in the enclosure of a tiger who fatally mauled a 17-year-old man show that the animal was attacked or taunted, San Francisco Zoo spokesman Sam Singer said Wednesday.

Police are examining a large rock, a tree branch and other items, Singer said.

“They [police] are trying to make a determination that those items or any other things that happened on Christmas Day were part of some attack on the tiger or something that angered Tatiana, causing her to come out of her cage,” the spokesman said.

San Francisco Police Chief Heather Fong has said that a shoe print found on the railing at the tiger enclosure is being examined to determine if one of the victims climbed over the rail or threw their leg over the side.

“Something prompted our tiger to leap over the exhibit and all I can do is ensure that’s never going to happen again at the San Francisco Zoo,” said the facility’s director Manuel Mollinedo Wednesday.

“Corrections” are under way at the habitat as the zoo prepares to reopen Thursday, he said. A series of temporary security measures will be in place, with more permanent improvements to follow. Those will include raising the wall around the tiger habitat to 19 feet, adding security staff and installing a speaker system to alert visitors in the event of another emergency, Mollinedo said.

The zoo’s large cats will be kept indoors until workers complete the improvements to their enclosure.

A memorial area will be on display Thursday near the entrance to the zoo and visitors are encouraged to bring mementoes and tributes — both to the mauling victim and Tatiana.

Signs are also going up at the zoo advising people to be respectful of the animals.

Meanwhile, the two brothers who survived the attack said they were denied help for at least 30 minutes by zoo security who did not take their pleas seriously, an attorney representing Paul Dhaliwal and Kulbir Dhaliwal said Tuesday, according to The Associated Press.

The 300-pound Siberian tiger apparently jumped a 12½-foot wall December 25 and killed Carlos Sousa and injured his friends.

The wall was determined to be nearly 4 feet shorter than industry standards. The dry moat between the wall and the exhibit, built in 1940, measures 33 feet.

A source close to the investigation said the rock found in the habitat measured 9 inches, and a tree branch and pine cones were found that came from trees that were not near the tiger’s enclosure.

Zoo employees did not see the items in the enclosure before the tiger escaped, the source said.

Singer said zoo employees also alerted police to an empty vodka bottle in the car in which the young men came to the zoo.

He called the brothers’ statement that they were ignored “unreliable.”

The brothers tried to get help for Sousa after attempts to stop the tiger failed, attorney Mark Geragos said.

The animal first mauled Sousa and Paul Dhaliwal about 4:30 p.m., the attorney said, according to AP. While Sousa was seriously hurt, Paul Dhaliwal escaped, and he and his brother ran 300 yards to a zoo cafe where they had earlier eaten.

But the siblings were denied entry to the cafe because the zoo was closing, the AP reported. At that point the brothers lost sight of the tiger. The brothers then saw a female security guard who appeared “diffident” when she was informed of the escaped tiger, Geragos said, according to AP.

“Who knows what would have happened if the guard had acted earlier?” Geragos said. “But Carlos would have stood a better chance of not dying. And maybe the police would not have shot the tiger as well.”

Investigators from the U.S. Department of Agriculture are at the zoo, the AP reported.

The USDA issued several letters of warning to the zoo in the 1990s, but the findings were described as minor. A 1999 letter talked about sanitation and food storage issues, AP said.

The zoo paid a $500 penalty for problems inspectors discovered with veterinary care in 1992 and a $1,425 penalty in 2000 for sanitation problems at one animal facility.

That was the most recent action taken against the zoo, according to USDA spokeswoman Jessica Milteer, AP said.

SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) — The person mauled to death by a Siberian tiger at the San Francisco Zoo on Christmas was 17-year-old Carlos Sousa of San Jose, California, the San Francisco medical examiner’s office said Wednesday.

The area where the 300-pound female named Tatiana killed the teen and attacked two men was declared a crime scene. The survivors, whose identities have not been released, are in stable condition, according to a surgeon at San Francisco General Hospital.

Ron Magill of the Miami Metro Zoo in Miami, Florida, told CNN that the Siberian tiger is “the most powerful cat on the face of this planet.”

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Mollinedo was asked about an incident involving Tatiana last year. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the tiger chewed the flesh off a keeper’s arm during a public feeding demonstration. Mollinedo said Tatiana “was acting like a normal tiger” at the time, and that the zoo modified procedures to increase security.

The zoo remained closed Wednesday while officials investigated, Mollinedo said. The zoo is expected to reopen Thursday, but the lion house, the zoo’s big-cat exhibit, will remain closed “until we get a better understanding of what actually happened.”

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

“We have deemed the site, as of last night, a crime scene,” Fong said Wednesday. She said fire and police responded to emergency calls shortly after 5 p.m. Tuesday. When police arrived, they saw the tiger “sitting next to a person on the ground,” and the tiger turned back and began attacking the person again, she said.

Officers yelled for the tiger to stop, and didn’t fire immediately “for fear that they would not be able to contain their fire,” she said. “When the yelling was occurring, the animal turned toward the officers,” who then shot and killed the animal, Fong said.

Dicker said the biggest concern was infection, and the two would remain on antibiotics after their release. The men 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.

California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health determined last year, after the first incident with Tatiana, 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.

“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.”

San Francisco Police Chief Heather Fong said police secured the area to gather evidence and witness statements.

Earlier, authorities searched the San Francisco Zoo four times and are certain that there are no more victims of the tiger, which escaped from her pen. They 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.

“There were no other tigers that were lose in the zoo and no more victims,” Fong said Wednesday.

Tatiana was held in an exhibit area that included a 20-foot moat and an 18-foot wall, said zoo director Manuel Mollinedo. It’s possible the tiger jumped from her enclosure, but authorities have not determined how the animal escaped.

“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.