Triggering Tatiana flashbacks today, we just got word that a white tiger fatally mauled a zoo keeper in a New Zealand yesterday, "just three months after the victim had saved another keeper from an attack by the same tiger." Happening at the Zion Wildlife Center in Whangarei, somewhere in Middle Earth, tiger handler Dalu Mncube succumbed to severe tearing of the abdomen. According to Times Online, "the male tiger attacked Mr Mncube with no warning, ripping at the helpless man's body as his colleague tried to fight him off with a stick and a fire extinguisher." San Francisco Zoo, if you recall, payed host to a fatal tiger attack on Christmas Day 2007 when Tatiana the tiger leaped from her grotto, attacking and killing Carlos Sousa Jr. Unlike Tatiana, however, who was shot and killed by SFPD officers, the white tiger wasn't put down. Update: We were wrong. The white tiger, one of only 120 white tigers in the world, was killed soon after the mauling.
UPDATE: Another Tiger Mauling Ends In NZ Zoo Keeper's Death
Sousa Family Settles with SF Zoo over Tiger Killing
This just in. Carlos Sousa, Jr.'s family, who sued SF Zoo over their son's 2007 Christmas Day tiger mauling death, has agreed to a settlement. According to today's release:
San Jose Toddler and Grandmother Attacked by Dogs
Another mauling, y'all. This time in San Jose.
Emergency 911 Tapes of SF Zoo Tiger Attacks Released
Less than a week after the fatal tiger mauling at the SF Zoo, much of the news that has (slowly) unraveled from the Christmas Day tiger attacks has been disheartening. From the downplayed info about the too-short tiger pen fence, conflicting evidence that the three boys taunted the Siberian tiger just before the attack, and that emergency protocol wasn't followed by SF Zoo employees, there are more chin-scratching facts to add to the list. Take, for example, the lack of concern the two brothers felt for their dead friend, Carlos. According to a law enforcement source, as the brothers were being transported from the zoo to the hospital, "one brother told the other not to talk to anyone." The source went on to say that "they were more concerned with their car in the parking lot and that it would be okay." (Sure, people have different reactions in time of grief, but still: Ouch.)

