Escaped tiger kills man at San Francisco zoo
Pastor Dale Morgan
Escaped tiger kills man at San Francisco zoo*
SAN FRANCISCO - A tiger killed a man at San Francisco Zoo and badly
injured two teenage brothers on Tuesday, a year after an employee was
mauled by a tiger at the park, according to local news reports.
Radio station KCBS said the tiger attacked the unidentified 23-year-old
man at the throat while he was in a cafe with his two friends, aged 19
and 18.
The brothers, also unidentified, were taken to San Francisco General
Hospital, with cuts and slashes all over their bodies, KCBS said. They
were in "stable but critical condition," said Lt. Ken Smith, a spokesman
with the San Francisco Fire Dept.
The incident happened about 15 minutes after the 5 p.m. closing time. It
was not clear why the men were still at the zoo, or how the tiger
escaped. Zoo officials declined comment.
"We can only guess what occurred here," Smith said.
Authorities initially believed that three other tigers had also escaped,
but the animals have been accounted for.
The incident follows a December 22, 2006, attack when a Siberian tiger
ripped the flesh off a zookeeper's arm as horrified visitors looked on.
The public feeding house was immediately closed, and reopened in
September after $250,000 was spent on safety upgrades.