At the Toronto Zoo, depending on the time of year, their is the cut off time for the last admission to the zoo (and it’s “closed” for admission), then there is the actual closing time.
I think in December you’re supposed to start heading toward the exits around 4:00 but the last admission is 3:00. So if you were to show up at 3:15, the zoo for you would be “closed” even though visitors already inside get to stick around for another hour.
There’s a difference bwetween cameras that are surveilling people and ones that are trained on the enclosures of dangerous animals.
I’m actually really stunned that they didn’t have cameras aimed at the tigers’ enclosure. The Sumatran tigers in Toronto have several cameras aimed at them, and a lost of zoo let you go on line to see the “Tiger Cam” or “Polar Bear Cam” or “Gorilla Cam”. They are there for both the protection of the visitors and the animals (in case someone throws something into an enclosure, like the time someone tossed something into the orangutan’s enclosure and a teen ape died.)
They had NO cameras trained on the tigers??? :smack:
Yes, it’s a blessing!
So, if you happen to be dangling your friend into the tiger cage to taunt the tiger into reacting, and the tiger does what tigers do by leaping across the moat and latching onto your friend’s leg, LET THE FUCKER GO!!!
has there been any statement from PETA yet? I’m paranoid about reading anything from them at my work computer.
Because I’m looking for any kind of distraction possible, at the moment, here’s your answer .
It’s actually pretty well-reasoned and written, compared to what I expect from PETA. Simply a plea that the SF zoo consider phasing out the tiger enclosure, and citing both the problems with keeping large cats in captivity (though I think their numbers are a bit misleading, since I believe the majority of the attacks that comprise their stats are from private sanctuaries, or private owners, not proper zoos.) and the fact that the large cats, in particular, are forced into territories much smaller than their natural territories.
I have heard nothing about a statement from PETA, but there was a guy from “Born Free USA” on one of the morning shows this morning talking about how all zoos are unethical because animals aren’t meant to be kept in cages, etc. He was getting Jack Hanna (I think?) all riled up. But I wasn’t paying too close attention. I did roll my eyes a few times.
I hope this incident won’t keep people away from zoos. My husband, who has the day off (lucky jerk) was going to go to the SD Zoo today as a “show of support.” I think he just wanted to go to the zoo. 
Oh Hell! A very bad idea! He might go all flamingo on your ass.
This should be an alternate name for our message boards.
Anyone notice that original reports said “15’ moat and a 20’ wall”, then earlier today CNN has it as a “20’ moat and an 18’ wall”?
Now I’m seeing an article that says “33-foot-wide moat and a 12.5-foot wall”
My wife works for Born Free USA. Here is their official statement.
Yes, it was Jack Hanna!
So now will the Zoo sue the guys? After all, their (alleged) prank led to the loss of the tiger.
Yeah that’s already been hijacked here a couple times now and is really kind of irrelevant to the topic anyway.
[sub]Note to self: Next time use the phrase “$65 million dollar pants lawsuit” so as not to give a couple Dopers apoplexy. Although they will probably have to point out that it was $54 or $67 million because, you know. :rolleyes: [/sub]
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/27/MNFFU5G80.DTL&tsp=1
“Woops, my bad!”
Really, is this a fucking joke? No cameras, no floodlights, and a fence that my fat ass could climb while wearing mittens?
Tides.
So it was the Zoo Director who started all the talk about the victims possibly taunting the tiger into escaping, and now the Police Chief is saying no shoe was found inside the enclosure? That bastard son of a bitch Zoo Director is only worried about covering his ass at this point, isn’t he? He’ll slander the dead and injured to do it, with no qualms, apparently.
12½ foot wall, feh. My half-crippled mom could get over that wall if she was so inclined, let alone a goddam gigantic tiger.
Edit to add quote from sfgate article which rose my ire:
12.5 foot wall??!! with a tiger that is 6ish feet tall!!?? oy! that is trouble. once she cleared the moat a wall that size wasn’t even a speed bump.
Moat didn’t even have water in it (not that water would bother a tiger). It was more of a big wide ditch.
Next we’re going to find out that the door in the back of the enclosure wasn’t so much a door but a rather festive beaded curtain.
Also, the zoo director has no zoology background, but spent last night in a Holiday Inn Express.
So where were the tranquilizer dart guns? You KNOW the zoo has to have some. You know they have plenty of tranq medications on hand at all times; they work with large animals. The police are quite used to nonlethal weapons these days, look at all the tasering making the news. Why in the heck couldn’t zoo officials and police coordinate and get tranq guns into the right hands and bring the beast down nonlethally?
Don’t tell me “the risk was too great” to take the time to do that. The police have already stated they hesitated to fire for fear of hitting bystanders, but then fired anyway, so it’s clear they were willing to take some risk with their weapon use. Why not take that risk on the front end of the tale by grabbing tranq guns?
Did they think the tiger was going to come quietly?
Sailboat