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


"JonesieCat" <Long Ago@Far Away> wrote in message
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"Copasetic" <deepsprings95@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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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.



Ah thx. Finally a witness. No slingshots witnessed, but loud heckling,
growling noises from the brothers were seen, and the cats were agitated,
from what this woman says.

Loud growling noises is nothing. But people were around, wonder what
they may have done when NO one was around to say anything or stop them.

The fourth young man, who knows? Maybe just
someone in the vicinity who looked like he was with them, but wasn't. Or
was with them, but got away unscathed and doesn't want to get involved?
Stupid, dangerous actions from 2 young men. Dangerous in retrospect that
is. Who knew the tiger could get out? And that stupid Geragos, gee he's
annoying.

jc
Why can't Geragos go back to just being a talking head!



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