S.F. Zoo visitor saw 2 victims of tiger attack teasing lions

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/02/MN9TU8AGC.DTL&tsp=1

S.F. Zoo visitor saw 2 victims of tiger attack teasing lions
Patricia Yollin, Tanya Schevitz,Kevin Fagan,
San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writers
Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Two victims of a lethal Christmas Day tiger attack were harassing the big
cats at the San Francisco Zoo shortly before a 350-pound feline escaped its
enclosure and mauled them, a woman has told The Chronicle.

The revelation comes as the zoo reopens today, nine days after a visitor was
killed and two of his friends were injured by the Siberian tiger, later shot
dead by police.

Jennifer Miller, who was at the zoo with her husband and two children that
ill-fated Christmas afternoon, said she saw four young men at the big cat
grottos - and three of them were teasing the lions a short time before the
tiger's bloody rampage that killed 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr.

"The boys, especially the older one, were roaring at them. He was taunting
them," the San Francisco woman said. "They were trying to get that lion's
attention. ... The lion was bristling, so I just said, 'Come on, let's get
out of here' because my kids were disturbed by it."

She said Sousa - whom she later recognized from his photo in the newspaper -
was not heckling.

Miller, who visits the zoo with her relatives every Christmas, said the boys
stood out because she has seen mostly families there. Although authorities
have said Sousa was accompanied only by San Jose brothers Paul Dhaliwal, 19,
and Kulbir Dhaliwal, 23, Miller said four boys were together when she came
across them.

Mark Geragos, an attorney speaking on behalf of the Dhaliwals, angrily
denied that his clients teased the animals. He also accused the zoo
administration and their newly hired crisis spokesman of "peddling unfounded
rumors."

"It's unconscionable," he said. "They're doing nothing but a calculated
attack on these victims ... when in actuality the zoo security didn't do
what they should have been doing after the attack."

Geragos maintains that the brothers ran to the Terrace Cafe after Tatiana
escaped and tried for more than 30 minutes to solicit help from zoo
employees. He dismissed reports of the victims throwing rocks at the tiger
as "just not true."

Miller called the behavior she witnessed by the victims "disturbing."

Her family had stopped to look at the lions when the young men came from the
other direction, heading toward the outdoor grotto area where four lions and
five tigers were living in five enclosures. The young men started roaring at
the lions and acting "boisterous" to get their attention, said Miller, who
added that she watched the boys for five minutes or so a little after 4 p.m.

"It was why we left," she said. "Their behavior was disturbing. They kept
doing it."

Sousa refrained from such tactics, Miller said.

"He wasn't roaring. He wasn't taunting them," she recalled. "He kept looking
at me apologetically like, 'I'm sorry, I know we are being stupid.' "

When a friend told Miller about the attacks - first reported to 911
dispatchers at 5:07 p.m. - she called police the day after Christmas to tell
them what she had seen. She called back Wednesday because she was wondering
why news accounts mentioned only three boys.

San Francisco police Inspector Valerie Matthews said investigators had
talked to Miller on Wednesday but haven't been able to substantiate yet her
account of a fourth person with the victims at the zoo. Authorities have
been unable to corroborate reports that the victims taunted the tigers, she
said.

"I don't know if what they did was any more than what kindergartners do at
the zoo every day," Matthews said.

She said taunting an animal at the zoo is a misdemeanor.

Zoo officials declined Wednesday to specifically say that they suspected
taunting in the escape of the tiger.

"Something prompted our tiger to leap over the exhibit," said Manuel
Mollinedo, executive director of the zoo, in response to questions during a
13-minute press conference attended by at least 40 media representatives on
Wednesday.

Mollinedo said new "Protect the Animals" signs would ask patrons to leave
the animals alone, and portable loudspeakers would remind visitors to leave
promptly at the 5 p.m. closing time. A hard-wired notification system is
also in the offing to alert visitors to any escapes by the creatures that
live there.

"Help make the zoo a safe environment," the signs state. "The magnificent
animals in the zoo are wild and possess all their natural instincts. You are
a guest in their home. Please remember they are sensitive and have feelings.
PLEASE don't tap on glass, throw anything into exhibits, make excessive
noise, tease or call out to them."

At the news conference, Zoological Society Chairman Nick Podell lavishly
praised the beleaguered Mollinedo, who took over at the zoo in February 2004
and was earning $314,038 a year plus $15,702 in benefits and a $9,548
expense account, according to zoo tax documents filed in November. The
society operates the zoo, although the land and animals are owned by the
city.

Zoo officials said that over the next 30 days they will build a
reinforced-glass barrier atop the tiger grotto's dry moat wall. On Tuesday
the zoo said the glass wall would be 4 to 5 feet high, bringing the wall
height to at least 16.5 feet tall, roughly what is suggested by national
standards. However, on Wednesday the zoo said the wall would be at least 19
feet tall and feature viewing holes.

In the days after the fatal mauling, zoo officials gave five different
estimates of the moat wall's height before finally conceding the wall was
only 12.5 feet tall - 4 feet shorter than national recommendations.

"It will put us in the top end of the spectrum for containment facilities,"
Mollinedo said.

He remained vague on several other issues. Although he said 20 patrons were
at the zoo when the attack occurred, he didn't know how many staff people or
security officers were present. He said there will be more employees on duty
in the future, although he wasn't sure when that staffing increase would
happen. And he didn't know how much the proposed improvements would cost or
where the money would come from.

"I'll have to get back to you on that," Mollinedo said more than once.

Mollinedo said his staff acted heroically after the attacks, although he
couldn't describe any specific instances. However, zoo employees have told
The Chronicle that they were among the first on the scene and led paramedics
to Sousa's body while the tiger was still roaming the grounds.

When the zoo reopens, the big cats will be inside the Lion House, which will
be closed to the public. Screened fences and barriers will surround the
outdoor grotto and Terrace Cafe, sites of the attacks.

Patrons will be able to leave mementos and tributes at the main entrance to
both Sousa and the 4-year-old Tatiana, who had mangled her keeper's arm a
year earlier.

Also Wednesday, San Francisco police Sgt. Steve Mannina said investigators
found an empty vodka bottle in the car that was used by the victims to go to
the zoo on Christmas Day. Inspectors haven't concluded the significance of
the find, he added.

Mannina also said results of toxicological tests performed on Sousa, who was
killed by the tiger, have not been returned yet.

Chronicle staff writers Jaxon Van Derbeken and Steve Rubenstein contributed
to this report.



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