Entries from SFist tagged with 'tiger'
June 26, 2008
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......
Continue Reading "Was Tatiana the Tiger Just Hungry?"June 6, 2008
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......
Continue Reading "San Francisco Zoo Director Quits"June 2, 2008
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. The report confirms the cause of death: “Blunt force injuries of the head and neck (predatory cat bite(s)).” The evidence......
Continue Reading "Carlos Sousa Jr.'s, Tatiana the Tiger's Autopsies Revealed"May 28, 2008
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......
Continue Reading "SF Zoo To Win America's Best Zoo Award of 2008?"April 21, 2008
Paul Dhaliwal--Christmastime tiger attack victim, and currently in the process of trying to sue the city of San Francisco over said attack--might be looking at some time in the clink. After Dhaliwal went on a shoplifting spree last month, which included the brazen act of stuffing of two Wii controllers down his pants, San Leandro cops are recommend seven felony charges be handed down to him. According to the San Leandro police spokesman Lt.......
Continue Reading "Felon Charges Against Tiger Mauling Victim Amritpal "Paul" Dhaliwal?"March 28, 2008
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.)...
Continue Reading "When Geragos Attack--Dhaliwals Claim SF Was Negligent"March 13, 2008
The San Francisco Zoo announced today that Leanne, the 230-pound Sumatran tiger, is now caring for three newborn cubs. The SF Zoo, which came under scrutiny after last year's tiger-related mauling death of 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr., says that this is the first birth of Sumatran tiger for the zoo since 1956. It turns out Leanne had three of the cubs over a week ago, but kept them accidentally hidden from view of zoo......
Continue Reading "Leanne the Tiger Births Cub Triplets"February 29, 2008
On Thursday, Juan Zuluaga, 26, was arrested at the SF Zoo following a run-in with a rhinoceros. It seems, according to the Chron, that Zuluaga was busted for throwing acorns at Mashaki, a black rhino: Police said they were summoned to the zoo at 3:30 p.m. Thursday after a patron reported to officials that Zuluaga was picking acorns off a branch and tossing them at the black rhino, a male named Mashaki. Zuluaga was......
Continue Reading "Days of Our Zoo: Man Arrested for Taunting Rhino"February 22, 2008
A 245-pound Sumatra tiger in Hawaii was found wandering the grounds of the Honolulu Zoo on Thursday morning. it seems she "wandered out of her cage" during closing hours. According to AP (via the Merc): A startled female volunteer reported the escape after the tiger brushed past her. The volunteer quickly retreated and secured a second gate that kept the tiger from going into a public area. It took zoo workers several minutes to......
Continue Reading "Tiger Escapes Cage at Honolulu Zoo"February 21, 2008
The big cat grottoes re-open for public view....
Continue Reading "San Francisco Zoo Re-Opens Lion And Tiger Grottoes"February 8, 2008
Glorious, isn't it? Raising the walls of the grotto 16.4 feet, in order to meet the minimum guidelines of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, the first phase of improving the SF Zoo's four big-cat grottos is complete. The tweaks were needed, as most of you know by now, after Siberian tiger Tatiana escaped and killed Carlos Sousa Jr. during the now infamous Christmas Day tiger attacks. The second phase of the project, according to......
Continue Reading "Behold, Your New Tiger Grotto Wall!"January 29, 2008
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.......
Continue Reading "Tiger Attack Update: Aw"January 22, 2008
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." ...
Continue Reading "Tiger Attack Update: Tatiana's Body Brutally Brutalized After Brutal Death"January 18, 2008
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. The trio, it seems, were also hopped up on mary jane and expensive vodka. Toxicology reports turned up numbers indicating that Paul was especially wasted during the attack. His blood alcohol level was 0.16......
Continue Reading "Tiger Attack Update: Tiger Taunted, Says Report"January 17, 2008
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: ...a significant amount of blood was found on an exhibit sign inside the tiger enclosure,......
Continue Reading "Tiger Attack Update: You're Either In or Out"January 15, 2008
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......
Continue Reading "Tiger Attack 911 Tapes Released"January 11, 2008
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. Read it. And weep. Beautiful and majestic Tatiana, what have they done to you...the creatures, said to......
Continue Reading "Comment of the Week: Ode to Tatiana the Tiger"January 11, 2008
(Look at us, getting all PETA on you with that headline. Gross.) While two snow leopards at the San Francisco Zoo were in the process of being moved from their pen to another location "for routine maintenance," one of the male snow leopards, Gurja, almost escaped. Gulp. According to CBS 5: The unidentified source told KCBS Radio the male leopard, named Gurja, had its head and front leg through the hole when the zookeeper......
Continue Reading "Gorgeous Leopard Nearly Escapes Captivity at SF Zoo"January 10, 2008
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......
Continue Reading "Tiger Attack Update: Paul Dahliwal Tells All!"January 8, 2008
January 8, 2008
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. His altar was decorated with a flowers, including Raiders logo. It seems Sousa was an Oakland Raiders fan, reportedly wearing a Marcus Allen Raiders jersey the day he was killed at SF Zoo. According to the Gate, some of Carlos' "friends showed up at the funeral wearing 'In......
Continue Reading "Tiger Attack Update: Mourning Carlos Sousa Jr."January 7, 2008
Delay, delay, dealy in the deadly tiger case...
Continue Reading "Dennis Herrera vs. Mark Garagos, Rounds 2 & 3"January 7, 2008
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......
Continue Reading "Tiger Attack Update: Unfurling the Red Tape"January 4, 2008
What's on the cell phones of those who survived the recent tiger attack? ...
Continue Reading "Tiger Beat: Dennis Herrera vs. Mark Geragos -- It's On!"January 3, 2008
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. Thankfully, according to......
Continue Reading "Tiger Attack Update: No Slingshots?"January 3, 2008
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......
Continue Reading "So So Many White White Tigers"January 3, 2008
Damn. Ing. An eyewitness has stepped forward, giving her account of what she supposedly saw on Christmas Day at the SF Zoo. Jennifer Miller, who visited the now infamous park with her husband and two small children, tells the Chronicle what she claims to have seen, just before the Tatiana mauled Carlos Sousa Jr. to death and injured Paul Dhaliwal and Kulbir Dhaliwal. "The boys, especially the older one, were roaring at them. He......
Continue Reading "Tiger Attack Update: Witness Account Says She Saw Taunting, Teasing"January 2, 2008
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......
Continue Reading "SF Zoo Reopens Tomorrow Boasting Memorial, New Features"December 30, 2007
Where to begin? Well, for starters, the page's score set to The Lion King's eleventh-hour song "Circle of Life." While we tend to loathe music set to any page on the webs, this is fitting. And touching. But Tatiana's official postmortem MySpace page offers more than just Elton John-manufactured teardrops. You can find informative links to such items as the transcript to Nancy Grace's show on the tiger attacks, a makeshift memorial of sorts,......
Continue Reading "Tatiana the Tiger's Official MySpace Memorial Page"December 30, 2007
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. In addition to the brothers' hospital release, NPR reports that all the big cats at SF Zoo will most likely......
Continue Reading "SF Zoo Tiger Attack Victims Released"