SF Zoo Tiger Attack: 30 Memorable Quotes

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom announced that the city's Recreaction and Parks Department Commission will conduct a series of public hearing on the deadly tiger attack that occurred at the SF Zoo on Christmas Day.

The hearings will begin Friday.

After the hearings, the commission will make a set of recommendations to improve the agreement that allows a nonprofit to run the public zoo, the mayor said. Newsom also directed zoo and city officials to convene an industry peer review team to examine operational and safety protocols, and the city's emergency services department will add a seat on its disaster council for the zoo director.

To mark the SF Mayor's announcement, DBKP has gathered quotes on the tiger attack, from around the Internet and media.

30 quotes on the San Francisco Tiger Attack.

"The hearings should include a review, analysis and any recommendations to improve the lease and management agreement that determines how the zoo runs."
--Statement released by San Francisco Mayor, Gavin Newsom's office.

"When he mentioned that to management at the zoo, he was met with angry denials, that it was not dangerous, that there was no need for concern. He was especially concerned about the grotto walls."
--Dan Bacon, attorney for Lloyd Kraal, who was a maintenance supervisor at the San Francisco Zoo. Kraal filed a lawsuit against the SF Zoo, in which he says the zoo retaliated against him for complaining about the grottos.

"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."
--Statement released by the non-profit Association of Zoos and Aquariums defending its zoo members' self-policing policies. The AZA noted that the Christmas Day tiger attack is the only time in its 84-year history that an escaped zoo animal has killed a visitor.

"It was why we left. Their behavior was disturbing. They kept doing it."
--Zoo patron Jennifer Miller reported that she, her husband and children saw four young men at the big cat grottos and that three of the men were teasing the lions. Ms. Miller said that she called the zoo to report the obvious "taunting--after the attack occurred.

"My son was a wonderful kid."
--Marilza Sousa, the mother of a teenager mauled to death by an escaped tiger, who said she wants people to remember him for the way he lived, not for the frightful way he died.

"Like any other business organization, we provide the information that we're required to by law. As a private not-for-profit, we're not required to make reports or distribute that information."
--San Diego Zoo spokesman Ted Molter, commenting on the possible refusal to release information on animal attacks.

"Zoo goers should have a right to know such information."
-- Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States, commenting on the possible refusal of zoos to release information on animal attacks.

"[Like] the fox guarding the hen house."
--California state assembly member Lloyd Levine, commenting on the zoo industry's current oversight system.

"[He was a] dancing, happy person" who would always greet her at the front door with a hug and a kiss.
-- Marilza Sousa, interviewed outside the viewing chapel.

"Its investigation has developed nothing that could be considered 'criminal in nature that would lead to charges against the survivors of the attack,' the Dhaliwal brothers."
--San Francisco police source.

"[H]ow this incident happened and what measures are needed to prevent this type of incident from occurring ever again."
--Letter sent today to Larry Martin, president of the city's Recreation and Parks Commission, by SF Mayor Gavin Newsom.

"When you see a tiger, it is always like a dream."
--Indian biologist Ullas Karanth

"[V]irtually impossible."
--Jack Hanna, the director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo, commenting on speculation that a rampaging tiger could have climbed or leaped out of its zoo enclosure in San Francisco. Hanna speculates that visitors could have been fooling around and might have taunted the animal. He says it's even possible they helped it get out, maybe by putting a board in the 20-foot moat surrounding the exhibit.

"He had seen instances where workers could see these tigers jumping almost up there."
--Dan Bacon, attorney for Lloyd Kraal, who was a maintenance supervisor at the San Francisco Zoo. Kraal filed a lawsuit against the SF Zoo, in which he says the zoo retaliated against him for complaining about the grottos.

"There was no way out through the door," Jenkins said. "The animal appears to have climbed or otherwise leaped out of the enclosure."
--The zoo's director of animal care and conservation, Robert Jenkins, could not explain how the 300-pound tiger escaped. The tiger's enclosure is surrounded by a 15-foot-wide moat and 20-foot-high walls, and the big cat did not leave through an open door, he said.




"Time will tell. For the dead guy and Tatiana, time is no longer a factor."
--DBKP's Little Baby Ginn, on how the tiger might have escaped.

"The idea you kill tigers for what tigers do is simply wrong. This is a human error. The tiger was flawless. Tigers are not dogs."
--pat commenting on DBKP story about the SF Zoo tiger attack.

"Are you suggesting they watch while a tiger eats a man alive? Perhaps they should have brought chairs and some popcorn."
--anonymous, commenting on the same story.

"Those cholos had it coming. It's the process of selection - nature weeding out the stupid and the weak. I checked the kid's myspace website and I'm willing to bet they were high. His last post from Christmas day said his mood was "high"."
--dencio commenting on the same DBKP tiger attack story.

"An empty vodka bottle was also found in a car used by Amritpal Dhaliwal, 19, and his brother, Kulbir, 23, on the day of the mauling, which left 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr. dead."

The discoveries could be an indication that the brothers may have taunted the 350-pound Siberian tiger before it leapt from its grotto."
--New York Post source.

"Splitting a bottle of vodka could have contributed to the youth's feeling "high"."
--DBKP source, commenting on reports that an empty vodka bottle was found in the youth's car after the attack.

"Look, we were lucky no one got killed. We should go over our emergency procedures and so forth out here."
--Zoo employee Lloyd Kraal, through his attorney Dan Bacon, to SF Zoo, after the December 2006 attack when trainer Lori Komejan was attacked by Tatiana, the same tiger involved in the fatal Christmas day mauling.

"The boys, especially the older one, were roaring at them. He was taunting them. They were trying to get that lion's attention. ... The lion was bristling, so I just said, 'Come on, let's get out of here' because my kids were disturbed by it."
--Zoo patron Jennifer Miller reported that she, her husband and children saw four young men at the big cat grottos and that three of the men were teasing the lions. Ms. Miller said that she called the zoo to report the obvious "taunting--after the attack occurred.

"Help make the zoo a safe environment," the signs state. "The magnificent animals in the zoo are wild and possess all their natural instincts. You are a guest in their home. Please remember they are sensitive and have feelings. PLEASE don't tap on glass, throw anything into exhibits, make excessive noise, tease or call out to them."
--New sign posted at San Francisco Zoo after it reopened.

"Tigers cannot read."
--DBKP's Little Baby Ginn

"Help make the zoo a safe environment. The weak animals who visit the zoo are wild and possess all their natural instincts. They are a guest in your home. Please remember they can be insensitive and unfeeling. PLEASE don't attack if they tap on glass, throw anything into exhibits, make excessive noise, tease or call out to you."
--Little Baby Ginn's suggested sign to be posted at SF Zoo.

"My son had his hands on the metal bar. All of a sudden, I saw the tiger leap over the moat, put a paw on the dirt (and hang on). I screamed and grabbed my son."
--Marian Roth-Cramer recalling the day she and her son, who was 4 or 5, visited the tiger exhibit in 1997.

"She always does that. She hates my guts."
--Unnamed SF Zoo keeper responding to a patron who was frightened when a tiger leaped over the moat at a small child in 1997.

"That's the way I want everybody to remember him. The way he was—a happy kid."
-- Marilza Sousa, interviewed outside the viewing chapel.

by Mondoreb
Sources:
* Deadly Attack at SF Zoo
* Zoo Walls only 20 Feet; Tigers Can Leap 30
* Tiger Debate Touched Off
* Tigers, Liquor and Slingshots: Bad Ideas
* Blaming the Victims
* City Will Hold Hearings on Tiger Attack
* SF Mayor to Hold Hearings on tiger attack
* Mourners Pay Respects to Victim of Tiger Attack
* Former employee files suit against SF Zoo
* U.S. Zoos' Self-Policing Policies Questioned





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