Siberian tigers butchered for body parts in their zoo

[California Tanker]

Listening to the local news station in the car, apparently this could well have been an example of Darwin in action. Death by Stupidity in other words.

According to the information released by SFPD, evidence is pointing to the three attacked persons (who were visiting the zoo together) having been taunting the tiger by throwing sticks and pine cones at it, and then, once the tiger was suitably annoyed, clambered over the wall/fence. The tiger then decided to have a crack at them, leaped the moat towards the fence, grabbed a hold of one kid's leg as a purchase, allowing it to bound up over the fence itself.

NTM

I just saw that. If it's confirmed, then...well, there's a lesson in consequences.

[wildernesse]

Yeah, when the news listed the ages of the people attacked, I thought it didn't sound good for the complete innocence of the people involved.

[Angakuk]

I don't have a comment on the story itself, but the reportage I saw yesterday was pitiful. I was following the story on both Fox and CNN and both networks were making a hash of it. In one report (I think it was CNN) the local correspondent kept referring to the tiger as a lion. In another report two different reporters were citing conflicting sets of facts (and failing to acknowledge the differences) and there was even some confusion as to how many tigers had escaped. I realize that breaking news can be chaotic, but can't they at least try to verify the facts before they report them? The other thing that was disturbing was the noticeable lack of a coherent narrative. Damn reporters can't even tell a decent story in some sort of intelligible order. I observed pretty much the same thing this morning with the reporting on the Bhutto assassination. It seems to me that the haste to be the first out with a story is resulting in an awful lot of truly awful reporting.

[Schrodinger's Cat]

In the war to bring the fastest news, accuracy is the first casualty.

[Caligulette]

Originally Posted by Angakuk

I don't have a comment on the story itself, but the reportage I saw yesterday was pitiful. I was following the story on both Fox and CNN and both networks were making a hash of it. In one report (I think it was CNN) the local correspondent kept referring to the tiger as a lion........ I observed pretty much the same thing this morning with the reporting on the Bhutto assassination.

They said Bhutto was a lion? That's pretty sloppy.

[California Tanker]

The plot is thickening.

Apparently now the Zoo has decided to measure its enclosure, and the wall is now only a little over 12 feet high, potentially scalable without assistance.

However, the two survivors are not co-operating with the police (They wouldn't even divulge the name of the third kid, even though the police already knew it) and in the first time in ages I can recall, the neighbours being interviewed by the media are saying "They were nothing but trouble. I can quite believe that they provoked the tiger"

NTM

However, I should note the last report I read indicated the police denied finding a bloody shoe inside the enclosure between the bars and the moat. Everything remains clear as mud (though I'm inclined to think there was some provocation of the tiger, wilful or otherwise).

[TomJoe]

Originally Posted by Adam

Call me a skeptic, but if there are enough farm bred tigers to supply the needs of the (supposed) medicinal market being pushed for, it should be really easy to bring the species back from the brink of extinction.

How about China cracks down on the bullshit medicinal market instead. I doubt tiger claw/liver/eye/brain helps cure bad mojo/financial issues/brain tumors ...

[Adam]

Originally Posted by TomJoe

How about China cracks down on the bullshit medicinal market instead. I doubt tiger claw/liver/eye/brain helps cure bad mojo/financial issues/brain tumors ...

Oh, sure, that's what the government medical agencies, with all their big money corporate medicine backers, would have you believe.

It sounds like China has already cracked down on the supply side of the bullshit (tsk, tsk..."alternative" has a much nicer ring) medicinal market, in that it's at least nominally illegal to sell tiger bits. I imagine cracking down on the demand side is a bit more difficult, and that the Chinese demand for tiger-based medicine will dry up at approximately the same time as the American demand for chiropractic, St. John's Wort, and faith healing.

Their boy were a heero!

Which probably equals more ch-ching.

At least, until the story turns out to be a complete load of crap, a la "She said yes."

Who me, cynical?

[Ymir's blood]

I wonder how feasible motion detectors on the tops of the enclosure walls would be. If the victims were monkeying around up there, it might have given security time to have come and stopped them.

[Angakuk]

It has just occurred to me that the alleged tiger that escaped its enclosure at the San Francisco Zoo may not have been an actual tiger. She may, in fact, have been a tigger. We all know what tiggers do. They bounce.

Eeney, meeney,
Miney, moe.
Taunt a tiger,
Down you go...

As suspected, these boys were fucking dumbasses and pretty much suffered the consequences of their own stupidity. It's just a fucking shame the tiger had to pay those consequences, too. At least before it had the chance to kill all three of them.

[California Tanker]

It's an interesting problem. Technically speaking, the tiger shouldn't have been able to get out without assistance (i.e. having a body available to grab a hold of as a foothold on the way up), so there is some fault on the part of the zoo. However, there is definitely contributory negligence: In the decades that the cat exhibit has been open, no other animals have seen fit to escape and maul the public, why for these guys? Maybe because nobody else was stupid enough to taunt a 300lb critter with sharp teeth and lots of claws?

Darwin says: "You are not at the top of the food chain"

NTM

[Shelli]

Originally Posted by Angakuk

It has just occurred to me that the alleged tiger that escaped its enclosure at the San Francisco Zoo may not have been an actual tiger. She may, in fact, have been a tigger. We all know what tiggers do. They bounce.