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Tiger Wall Too Short, Zoo Admits

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By JORDAN ROBERTSON, The Associated Press

Published: December 28, 2007

SAN FRANCISCO - The director of the zoo where a teenager was killed by an escaped tiger acknowledged Thursday that the wall around the animal's pen was 12 1/2 feet high - well below the height recommended by the accrediting agency for the nation's zoos.
San Francisco Zoo director Manuel A. Mollinedo also said that it is becoming increasingly clear the 300-pound Siberian tiger leaped or climbed out of its open-air enclosure, perhaps by grabbing onto a ledge.

"She had to have jumped," he said. "How she was able to jump that high is amazing to me." Mollinedo said investigators have ruled out the theory the tiger escaped through a door behind the exhibit.

According to the Association of Zoos & Aquariums, the walls around a tiger exhibit should be at least 16.4 feet high.

Mollinedo said the nearly 70-year-old wall was 12 feet, 5 inches, with what he described as a "moat" 33 feet across.

He said safety inspectors had examined the 1940 wall and never raised any red flags about its size.

"When the AZA came out and inspected our zoo three years ago, they never noted that as a deficiency," he said. said. "Obviously now that something's happened, we're going to be revisiting the actual height."

Mollinedo said the "moat" contained no water, and has never had any.

On Wednesday, the zoo director said that the wall was 18 feet high and the moat 20 feet wide. Based on those incorrect estimates, animal experts expressed disbelief that a tiger in captivity could have made such a leap.

The tiger, a female named Tatiana, escaped Christmas Day, killing 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr. and seriously injuring two of his friends. The survivors were identified by relatives and public records as brothers Paul Dhaliwal, 19, and Kulbir Dhaliwal, 23. The three were from San Jose.

"Today we went out and measured the moat ourselves," Mollinedo said. The tiger "had to have jumped out but how she jumped that high is beyond me."

An examination of the tiger's body also revealed a significant amount of concrete in its back paws, according to a source close to the investigation. That may indicate the tiger used its back claws to help push it up the grotto wall.

Police are still investigating and have declared the big-cat exhibit a crime scene.

Sources also told The San Francisco Chronicle that the surviving brothers have not been forthcoming during interviews with police.

The Chronicle, citing anonymous sources, reported Thursday that police are looking into the possibility that the victims taunted the tiger and dangled a leg or other body part over the edge of the moat. The newspaper said police found a shoe and blood inside the enclosure.

But Police Chief Heather Fong said police had no information that anyone had put a leg over the railing, and she said no shoe was found in the animal's enclosure. She did not address whether the victims had teased the tiger.

She said a shoeprint was found on the railing of the fence surrounding the enclosure, and police are checking it against the shoes of the three victims.

"Right now, what I want to know is if it was taunting, who did it? Why, why wasn't this protected right? I want some answers," the dead teenager's father said. As for the zoo, "They know what they did wrong; they know what they did."

Mollinedo said surveillance cameras and new fencing will be installed around the exhibit. The zoo will remain closed today.

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