Results tagged “manuelmollinedo”

In what must have been the six most shit-laced months of his life, Manuel Mollinedo, the executive director of the San Francisco Zoo, has resigned. Ever since Tatiana the tiger went for Carlos Sousa's jugular last Christmas, and made minor Bay Area celebrities out of the bumbling brothers Dahliwal, the San Francisco Zoo has faced "high zoo employee turnover" and "abysmal morale." Tanya McVeigh Peterson, a zoo society board lawyer will serve as interim director.

Due to the "unusual and extraordinary" Christmas Day tiger attack at the San Francisco Zoo -- which resulted in the mauling death of 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr. and wounding of Paul and Kulbir Dhaliwal -- a three-member tiger team formed by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums has been called in to examine the zoo's big cat grotto. While the investigation and renovations are underway, the tigers and lions are currently kicking it indoors. What's more, according to zoo director Manuel Mollinedo, the cats have been subjected to the wonderful world of Disney:

Behold, the tight-lipped duo who, at this point last week, couldn't have imagined the death and subsequent big-cat madness in store for them today. Under supervision at San Francisco General Hospital, due to severe bite and claw wounds since last Monday, Paul Dhaliwal, 19, and Kulbir Dhaliwal, 23, were released into the wild yesterday afternoon.

According to the Chronicle, SFPD are looking into whether or not one of the victims of SF Zoo tiger attacks "climbed over a waist-high fence and then dangled a leg or other body part over the edge of a moat that kept the big cat away from the public." With evidence of a shoe and some blood found in the area between the gate and the edge of the 25- to 30-foot-wide moat, as well as "pinecones and sticks that were found in the moat might have been thrown at the animal," zoo officials argue that Tatiana could have been provoked. Which? If that's the case, wasn't all too bright.

Drew Altizer does it again! Here's his pictures from Friday's annual SF zoo fundraiser, ZooFest, featuring special guest Tippi Hedren, star of Hitchcock's and mother to Melanie Griffith. Also, some pictures of Chris O'Donnell, who also supports the SF Zoo. (Alas, no pictures of noted SF Zoo eagle parent Stephen Colbert.)