It only took three years to get, but the Associated Press has finally gotten hold of reports from the government agency responsible for overseeing our nation's zoos - and they confirm what we pretty much already knew: Investigators agree that Tatiana, the Siberian tigress who killed Carlos Sousa Jr. and attacked his friends on Christmas 2007, must have been taunted by the three inebriated teens. As big cat expert Laurie Gage, from the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspect Service wrote in a draft of her report: "With my knowledge of tiger behavior I cannot imagine a tiger trying to jump out of its enclosure unless it was provoked." more ›

The Examiner reported on Thursday night that they obtained a never-before-released police interview with the Brothers Kulbir and Amritpal “Paul” Dhaliwal regarding the 2007 Siberian tiger attack at the San Francisco Zoo, which resulted in the death of 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr.. This exclusive report, released just in time for the third anniversary of the incident, promised a "tasty treat" in its headline, which turned out to be the fact that the three victims were eating nachos at some point before Tatiana the tiger escaped her enclosure and attacked them. more ›

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. more ›

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: more ›

Yesterday, as Carlos Sousa Jr.'s family mourned the one-year anniversary of their son's death, a sculpture of Tatiana the tiger was unveiled. Halfway up Telegraph Hill, a pleasant yet odd location to place it, the big-cat monument is built to scale as how Tatiana might have looked when she first arrived at the SF Zoo in 2005. Created by 48-year-old Jon Engdahl, who felt sympathy toward to the tiger, he views her as the victim, not the aggressor, in last year's awful Christmas time incident. "This was a labor of love," Engdahl tells the Chronicle, "I identified with this beautiful animal. I felt sorry for the sordid and needless way she died." If you recall, Engdahl had also organized a vigil for Tatiana early last year that attracted a handful feline lovers on New Year's Day 2008. more ›

With Tatiana's brutal attack nearing its one-year anniversary, the tiger's victim family sued the city of San Francisco and the San Francisco Zoo today for wrongful death. If you recall, the big cat escaped from her grotto last Christmas Day, attacking and killing 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr. According to reports, Marilza and, Carlos' parents, claim that "the zoo and the city, as owners of Tatiana, the Siberian tiger that jumped over its enclosure and mauled Sousa and two of his friends, are liable for Sousa's death, according to their attorney Michael Cardoza." The bumbling Dhaliwal brothers, Carlos' "friends," were also injured when the Tatiana jumped out of her pit. Word is the brothers, while drunk and/or high, taunted the tiger, which prompted the attack. Allegedly. more ›

Speculations are being thrown around that Tatiana the tiger was "underfed," possibly urging her to go on a fatal eating binge last Christmas. It seems that when Tatiana arrived at the SF Zoo in December 2005, she came in at a normal 292 pounds. But when she was killed by the SFPD last December, she weighed in at a pin-thin 242 pounds. (No word yet as to whether or not she was cutting herself as well.) Some "experts outside the zoo" are wondering if she was getting enough to eat, which might have prompted the tiger to mistake Carlos Sousa Jr. and the brothers Dhaliwal as big, imaginary mutton chops. more ›

The Examiner is reporting that morale is low over at the San Francisco Zoo: low attendance, a year's worth of the maintenance budget squandered in two months on necessary upgrades to the zoo (whose figure apparently "doesn’t include a $1.8 million bond released by the Recreation and Park Department to pay for upgrades at the tiger grotto"). Following the infamous tiger attack on Christmas Day, the zoo is plagued by numerous problems that its board of directors is digging its way out from under. more ›

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. more ›

Carlos Sousa Jr.'s autopsy report has just been released to the public. According to ABC 7's Dan Noyes, the San Francisco Medical Examiner’s Office's report details the massive (and pretty graphic) injures Sousa suffered from Tatiana the tiger on Christmas Day 2007 at the San Francisco Zoo after a tiger escaped from her grotto. more ›

The Intrepid Travel, some sort of online travel guide -- one that clearly has no access to the internets, TV, newspapers, phones, water coolers -- is bestowing the SF Zoo (along with 60 others) with the title of Best Zoo of 2008. Yes. Yes, they are. While the title of Most Interesting Zoo of 2008 seems appropriate, we still can't figure out if this is some sort of joke. Here's part of the remarkable press release: more ›

Looking to get a few bucks out of the city for the Christmas Day tiger attack that claimed the life of their (alleged) friend Carlos Sousa Jr., Amritpal and Kulbir Dhaliwal have filed claims against the city. Finally. And our sources sent SFIst a copy of the claim! (We'll try to get that up for you shortly.) more ›

The big cat grottoes re-open for public view. more ›

Glorious, isn't it? more ›

Wow. This is a bit depressing. Scratch that, a lot. more ›

"A San Francisco family is looking for a personal assistant / household manager to join our team on a long term basis." Are you that someone? more ›

According to today's Examiner, Tatiana will not, in fact, be honored with a gravestone complete old Sicilian widows throwing themselves onto her coffin. Instead, her "body parts will be probed and preserved while the rest, including the tiger’s coat, have already been incinerated. It’s just what happens to all zoo animals after they die." more ›

According to police reports Paul Dhaliwal admitted to "standing atop a railing of the big cat enclosure and yelling and waving at the animal that would later maul them," killing Carlos Sousa Jr. on Christmas Day at the SF Zoo. more ›

• Tiger attack victims "yelled" at Tatiana. [SFGate]
• SF Main Library re-opened its first floor. We had no idea that is was closed. Still, yay! [CCBlog]
• Evacuating together. Aw. (Wasn't this an SNL commercial parody ages ago? With Phil Hartman and Victoria Jackson? Also: we're old.) [The Snitch]

In the battle to see who's going down and who gets what and how much in court, new "evidence" suggests that possibly, maybe, perhaps Tatiana the tiger was provoked. It seems that said proof is in the form of a footprint and blood found inside the tiger enclosure at the SF Zoo. According to the kids down at KCBS: more ›

At the bargain price of just $35 dollars down at City Hall this morning, authorities released the emergency 911 tapes of the San Francisco Zoo tiger attacks. The attacks, if you don't remember, occurred on Christmas Day, taking the life of Carlos Sousa Jr. and injuring the now (in)famous Dhaliwal brothers. The footage is raw, with the most unnerving robotic British female voice overlapping the frantic phone call, but to check listen to the audio, go here. According to the Gate: more ›

Another public display of commemorative prose, folks. What with this plus the animals trying to escape from the zoo, you'd think the end is nigh, a big earthquake is on its way, or Aunt Flo has come for an extended visit.
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Although we can hardly see our computer screen through the hurricane of tears pouring from our eyes, we present to you the following poem of pain for Tatiana the tiger, penned by SFist poet laureate Ginadee62 in response to "Tatiana the Tiger's Official MySpace Memorial Page." This reader easily wins the award for Comment of the Week. more ›

Well, not "all," per se, but on Monday night Paul Dahliwal, one of the three people involved in the Christmastime tiger attack at the SF Zoo, telephoned Carlos Sousa Jr.'s mother, Marilza, to tell her that he and his chums were "dancing, talking, and laughing" moments before the attack. (Doing the Turkey Lurkey dance, no doubt.) It seems that Paul also told her that they were not taunting the tiger, something that has been widely speculated. more ›

Tiger attack victim, 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr., was mourned last night at the Five Wounds Portuguese National Church in San Jose by hundreds of loved ones. more ›

Today Gavin Newsom announced that "a series of public hearings on the fatal Christmas Day tiger attack" that resulted in the killing of 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr. will start as soon as this Friday. After these hearings, the Recreation and Parks Department Commission will "make a set of recommendations to improve the agreement that allows a nonprofit to run the public zoo." Or something like that. Although it's an attempt to appease the mayor who would like "'to know how this incident happened and what measures are needed to prevent this type of incident from occurring ever again,'" it sure sounds like a lot of busywork for the sake of busywork. Anyway, according to the Gate, Marisa Lagos deftly explains how the zoo is run,similar to a broken home. more ›

Oh my God, you guys, no way. Get this: the New York Post was wrong. What's next: Intelligent Design? Celebrity weddings? Our meth-induced epiphanies that the CIA, in cahoots with the Norteños, are reading our emails and listening in on our phone calls? See, it seems that "[n]o slingshots have been found" and that the NY Post was wrong. And we refuse to believe anything Rupert Murdoch-related is less than perfect. more ›

SFist Jim reports that he went to the reopening of the San Francisco Zoo today, where he snapped the picture, above, of the tributes being placed at the zoo's tiger statue, and which he described as "a big bust." When we first read SFist Jim's email, we thought he was talking about the tiger statue (we were like, "they made a bust of Tatiana? So fast!"), but no, he meant the crowds, which were sparse to the point where there was more media there than zoo visitors. more ›

Damn. Ing. more ›

The morbidly curious, a smattering of animal enthusiasts, and, of course, the media will line up to get into the SF Zoo when it reopens to the public at 10 a.m. tomorrow. In addition to a Tatiana-free environment, zoo visitors will also notice a few other changes. For instances, new signs reminding visitors that they are "guests in the [animals]" and not to "tap on glass, throw anything into the exhibit, make excessive noise, tease or call out to them." (We can't imagine to whom they're referring.) Also, reinforced-glass will make its debut in the tiger grotto, as well as loudspeakers telling visitors to scram come closing time. more ›