I generally try not to stray too far from politics in this series of rants, but this really pissed me off:
(AP) SAN FRANCISCO - One of the three victims of San Francisco Zoo tiger attack was intoxicated and admitted to yelling and waving at the animal while standing atop the railing of the big cat enclosure, police said in court documents filed Thursday.
[...]
Toxicology results for Dhaliwal showed that his blood alcohol level was 0.16 — twice the legal limit for driving, according to the affidavit. His 24-year-old brother, Kulbir, and Sousa also had alcohol in their blood but within the legal limit, Matthews wrote. All three also had marijuana in their systems.
Guess what folks? All of the above is completely IRRELEVANT. The Tiger got out. Period.
It doesn't matter what they did. It wouldn't matter if they'd thrown rocks at it and slandered its mother -THE TIGER GOT OUT. THE TIGER SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN ABLE TO GET OUT.
If the City of San Francisco or the Zoo Board or whomever feels that these young men did something illegal then by all means prosecute them to the full extent of the law. But nothing these men did removes blame or culpability from the San Francisco Zoo because the TIGER GOT OUT.
If the visitors had somehow broken the structure containing the tiger or put something foreign into it that allowed the tiger to climb out -that would have been a different story. But the fact is that no matter how stupid these guys were (and to be honest, from what I've read they don't sound like rocket-scientists) the tiger should have been contained and it wasn't.
And this is before the Polar Bear nearly got out and had to be darted. And before the Snow Leopard ripped through the wire mesh in its cage. Apparently, this Zoo is not up to code.
Exactly one year before this incident I took my then 2-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son to that zoo. This was after a massive windstorm had shut down portions of the zoo. We have pictures of that tiger (well, ok pictures of A tiger -but allow me a little dramatic license here). That tiger could have gotten out just as easily then.
That the zoo would try to shrug off responsibility for not only the death and injuries of the "offending" visitors but for endangering all visitors by saying "oh well, they shouldnt have taunted the tiger" is outrageous. I'll certainly never go there again, and frankly it should be closed until it is brought up to code the management is fired and replaced with more competent people.
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