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





DBKP.com - Bigger, Better!.
Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

Politicians Keep Disguising Taxes, Taxpayers Keep Pulling Off the Mask

Government officials at all levels have become more saavy at trying to disguise taxes as something else. But, it seems Democrats are especially adept at the practice.

However, voters/taxpayers are also getting better at recognizing the camouflage.

Gavin Newsome, Democrat mayor of San Francisco, is trying out a tax with a double disguise: first, it's called a fee; and second, it's dressed up in the now-familiar costume of preventing a health problem.

As an added touch, the tax is supposed to help alleviate a children's health problem.

...San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has set his sights on soda - working up a plan to charge a new city fee to big retailers of sugar drinks.

"The bottom line is that there is a direct nexus between high-fructose corn syrup drinks like colas and Big Gulps and obesity among schoolkids," Newsom said Friday.

The idea of taxing soda to combat obesity - which is being touted as the first in the nation - has been roiling around in health circles for some time, including backing from the American Medical Association.

The size of the fee (it won't be billed as a tax) is being worked out, but it may include a sweetener - namely giving the stores some other kind of fee break.

First of all, it's not a tax, it's just a governmentally creative way to combat obesity.

Child obesity.

Besides, it's not even a tax, it's a fee.

And, to top it off, it's going to hit "them" not "you"; i.e., the tax is to be on Wal-Marts and other businesses, not really on consumers.

That's a lot of camouflage.

Now Newsom wants the soda sellers - primarily big-box retailers and chain drugstores - to chip in for his "Shape Up San Francisco" program and for media campaigns to discourage the soda habit.

The mayor further states that sodas "account for millions of dollars in city health care costs.

One might point out that personal habits other than sodas probably account for more money in city health care. Perhaps some of these personal habits also should be subject to "fees".

But one realizes that even government creativity in taxation has its limits.

Don't be too harsh on the mayor: he's only a sign of Democrat restlessness with the stagnation of the rates of taxation.

The mayor's plea for a fee was detailed in the San Francisco Chronicle and its website. It drew 181 comments, mostly taxpayers not fooled by the mayor's attempt to dress up the tax as something completely different.

Here was a sampling of the readers who pulled the mask off of the mayor's "fee". They try to help the mayor out and suggest some other ways government can "help".


* Let's tax hair gel so Gavin Newsom can contribute to scalp health. Let's tax lattes and organic free trade coffee because they give people jitters and contribute to all kinds of heart ailments.
- Paul Kim, 40, Mission


* Why not tax "oversized" clothes? Video games? Butter? Air? Heck, wait until city (over)government drives all of the small business out of town and see how they handle the loss of THAT tax revenue. They better start considering a BIG tax on U-Hauls.
- Fritz Frisbie 49, Potrero Hill ("Restaurant owner dba 'Connecticut Yankee' ")


* How about a special tax for any restaurant tab over $100 with a sliding scale at $250 increments all that way up to $5,000. If you can afford to drop $2,500 on a dinner for 4 then you can definitely afford a higher "tax," right? Besides, eating all of that kobe beef and foie gras is so BAD for your health.
- Rob Kennelson, 36, North Beach


* Well don't stop there. The city should give tax breaks to Asian food cafes and restaurants which serve vegetarian-heavy menus over Europeans types which are heavy in creams and sauces. Garlic, which could cause Muni accidents, should be next. Pizza dough and fat cheeses followed by Super Burritos full of cheese, red meat and sour cream. And all St. Patrick's Day goodies from beer and corned beef to Irish whiskey, and fish and chips of the English.
- Hank Bellomo, 50, Fillmore


* Better tax that Vitamin Water stuff all the pseudo health conscious parents are feeding their kids. A bottle has 32 grams of sugar - almost as much as a can of Coke.
- Jeff Schwartz, 45, Sunset


* Remember when coffee was bad for you? Turns out it's the biggest source of anti-oxidants for Americans. Is wine good or bad? How about milk? Wheat germ? Eggs? Get out of the micromanagement of San Franciscans' lives, Newsom. My doctor doesn't even know if these things are bad or good.
- Brendan Taylor, 35, San Mateo ("ex-Mission & 18th resident")


* Mayor Newsom is on the right track, sort of. Drinking too much soda is not a good thing, but neither is excessive taxation. I used to drink 3 or 4 sugary sodas a day, for more than 10 years. All that has changed. I lost 15 pounds this year by drastically reducing my soda consumption. In addition to feeling better, I saved at least several hundred dollars - and that's without the mayor's soda tax.
- Darren Richardson, 43, Berkeley


* I recommend a 2-cent tax on all fried hamburgers within San Francisco city limits, for obesity research at UCSF Medical Center.
- Robert McCullough, 56, North Beach (a.k.a. "Captain Democracy," former mayoral candidate)


* I like the idea. I would support higher taxes (whatever they're called) for soda, junk food, and other destructive products (cigarettes, alcohol, gas, meat, plastic, Styrofoam, toxic chemicals, etc.).
- Dan Brook, 40, Parkmerced


* If the city is confident that excessive consumption of high-fructose corn syrup by schoolkids is linked to poor health and chronic obesity, then a surtax on beverages sweetened with HFCS should have the effect of discouraging excessive consumption while generating incremental revenue.
- Henry Walker, 44, Castro


* Anyone out there have a better idea, without taxing fuel, tobacco, alcohol, fast-food-to-go, meats, produce, utilities? Since San Franciscans pride themselves with having the highest property values, let them show it by upping the property tax on their faux-Victorians, high-rise condos, and baron-owned slum rentals. This is one solution. I like your mayor.
- Keith Schmidt, 53, Medicine Lodge, Kan.


* Great tax proposal. But it will drive people to buy soda from San Mateo.
- Gerald Chu, 32, Burlingame

Good civic-minded people, all.

But don't think that some of their ideas might not be proposed in the future

Once you start taxing in the name of what accounts for health care costs, there's no logical stopping point.

Most of the above readers are trying to propose ridiculous examples of fees.

If they're not careful, the mayor, and other Democrats, might just hire them to write new "fee" proposals.

by Mondoreb
[image:deviantart]
Sources:
* 12-17 Newsome considers sugary fee for sellers of soda
* Reader's Platform



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

5.6 Quake Shakes San Francisco

It wasn't the "big one", but every time the dishes shake in California, people in the Golden State are a little uneasy. A 5.6 magnitude quake shook the San Francisco area last night.

Many Californians still have vivid memories of the San Francisco 1989 'World Series Quake' which disrupted life in the Bay area. More on this earth-shaking news fromCNN:

A moderate earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.6 struck Northern California Tuesday night, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The quake's epicenter was about five miles north-northeast of Alum Rock, California, and nine miles northeast of San Jose's City Hall, the USGS said. It hit at 8:04 p.m. (11:04 p.m. ET).

There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

Rafael Abreu of the USGS said that a 5.6 quake was considered moderate but could provide "a pretty strong jolt."

Not much was disrupted; the trains suffered only a hiccup.

Bay Area Rapid Transit said trains were stopped for five minutes after the quake, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. reported no power outages, according to affiliate KTVU.

Another quake and life goes on in California. What else should it do?

by Mondoreb
[image:eqseis]



Back to Front Page.

Shoot Up Rooms:The Future of San Francisco?

[image:druglibrary.org]
by Mondoreb & Little Baby Ginn

Another front in the War on Drugs? California's Silicon Valley is a land of firsts: microchips, vast computer networks, software and--shoot-up rooms. The corporate hub of the area is San Francisco. Safe-injection rooms may be coming there soon. From Sign On San Diego:

SAN FRANCISCO – City health officials took the first tentative steps Thursday toward opening the nation's first legal safe-injection room, where addicts could shoot up heroin, cocaine and other drugs under the supervision of nurses.

Hoping to reduce San Francisco's high rate of fatal drug overdoses, the public health department co-sponsored a symposium on the only such facility in North America, a 4-year-old Vancouver site where an estimated 700 intravenous users a day self-administer narcotics.

Sometimes one reads a newspiece and is not sure about how to take it. The libertarian take: this is a job government should not be doing. An anti-drug war take: this shouldn't be against the law. A rational Christian take: somewhere, more self-control and an appeal to a power higher than San Francisco's city officials are probably what's needed.

On those pieces, one maintains an uneasy silence.



Back to Front Page.

Liberal San Francisco Changing Views?

[BBC photo]
by Mondoreb
Oh no! Say it ain't so!

It wouldn't be the same with San Francisco to kick around anymore. One need look no further than the 'City by the Bay' to see the daily replays of Leftism-Gone-Wild. But is that about to change?

From the San Francisco Chronicle:
San Francisco - the liberal, left-coast city conservatives love to mock - could be undergoing a transformation when it comes to homeless people. Although the city would still be a poor choice for a pep rally for the war in Iraq, indications are that residents have had it with aggressive panhandlers, street squatters and drug users.

"Maybe there has been an epiphany," says David Latterman, president of Fall Line Analytics, a local market research firm. "People have realized they can hate George Bush but still not want people crapping in their doorway."

Whew! For a moment, visions of San Franciscans tuned to Fox News and celebrating Karl Rove's birthday with a prayer in their schools danced in one's head. Boston's a poor second when it comes to cataloging Liberalism's excesses: Irish-Catholics are a bit more conservative in outlook than Gomorrah-by-the-Bay's Folsom Street Fair community. As one fellow explained:

"I don't expect it to be Cow Hollow or Pacific Heights," [David Kiely, who has lived in the South of Market area for 18 years his wife, Jenny, and their three boys, ages 7, 4 and 1.] says. "But the other day Jenny is bringing the kids back from the park, and some guy is standing on the corner throwing up on himself."

Although the boys are at the age when someone else throwing up spurs a debate on how 'gross' or 'cool' it is, it's not a picture they want to take to "show and tell".

Like their name implies, conservatives hate change. The traditional has value, even the traditional that became radical forty years ago. It brings a peace to know that Right Wing Madmen will have San Francisco to make fun of for a bit longer. An old friend is staying put.

Even if he happens to be throwing up on himself.
Back to Front Page

A Whiff of San Francisco:MILLER BREWING PULLS LOGO,PELOSI STICKS UP FOR BLASPHEMY,KIDS MARCH IN GAY PARADE

[promotional poster}
MILLER ISSUES WEASEL WORDS!
PELOSI: "GAY SUPPER NO THREAT TO CHRISTIANITY"
LOOKING AT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL KIDS WITH A QUEER EYE

by Mondoreb & Little Baby Ginn

The Leather Last Supper.
Just another thing they don't have in Utah. Or most anywhere else in the USA.
Today's Folsom Street Fair, held in the streets of San Francisco, sparked a spate of news this week. The biggest item was Miller Brewing pulling it's support of it's advertising on a promotional poster for the event that featured, what might be styled, "The Gay Last Supper".

From WorldNetDaily
Responding to pressure from Christian groups, the Miller Brewing Co. is asking organizers of a "gay" street celebration in San Francisco to remove its logo from a promotional poster portraying Jesus Christ and his disciples as "half-naked homosexual sadomasochists."

Folsom Street Fair is a part of Leather Week in San Francisco, the capital of public gayness in the United States. With no innuendo intended, Miller was caught between a rock and hard place. Or more accurately, between thousands of beer-swilling gays and thousands of beer-partaking Christians. In a press release that should be immortalized in the "INEPT Hall of Fame", Miller placated neither group and provided inspiration to corporate PR wienies everywhere.

In a statement on its website, Miller said while it has "supported the Folsom Street Fair for several years, we take exception to the poster the organizing committee developed this year."

"We understand some individuals may find the imagery offensive and we have asked the organizers to remove our logo from the poster effective immediately," the company said.

Folsom was also news fodder earlier in the week when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi(D-CA) reacted to the Gay Supper ad.

From WorldNetDaily
Asked to respond to a San Francisco "gay"-festival's promo mocking the Last Supper of Jesus Christ, the chief spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi offered a dismissive quip.

"As a Catholic, the speaker is confident that Christianity has not been harmed," said Drew Hammill, the San Francisco Democrat's press secretary.

No word if Ms. Pelosi issued the statement ala burqua.No word either on whether the spokesman would have worn a head scarf if the gays at Folsom had threatened Israeli civilians. And lastly, they used to be called "normal, church-going folks"; now they are labeled "Christian activists".

From WorldNetDaily:
Elementary-age students have marched in a homosexual pride event under the banner of a San Diego public school, amidst triple-X rated behavior by "gay" activists, according to a Christian blogger who reports daily to 7,000 people.

James Hartline, who issues "Action Alerts" in response to situations in the city, said he was shocked by the "immoral" actions.

The 'Christian activist' issued a statement of his own. It was rumored that he had refused offers to issue it in either leather or a burqua.

"In one of the most appalling displays of gross disregard for the safety of young children, the San Diego City School system allowed a number of small children to march inside of the San Diego Gay Pride parade under the banner of one of its schools," he said.

Busy week for both the God-fearing and the leather freaks.

Americans might be forgiven if they are suffering from Outrage Fatigue Syndrome. What would seem outrageous just 30 years ago is now promoted with corporate sponsorship. What was once forbidden is now celebrated. Christians in the San Francisco area might be examined, what with almost daily affronts to their faith, to see if they suffer from masochism.

In that case, San Francisco might just be the best place to live.
DBKP.com - Bigger, Better!.
DIGG THIS!
Back to FRONT PAGE