I am currently unavailable for comment due to the holidays but thought you might want to see some photos and comments on the recent tiger attack at the San Francisco Zoo Lion House.
A tiger attack on a zoo keeper at the San Francisco Zoo occurred in the historic lion house. A flash back to the past, this zoo continues an old exhibition tradition surrounding the feeding of the big cats.
Sometime back on a visit to the San Francisco Zoo I was called upon to take a look at Tony the tiger (for stereotypic behavior) and was invited to witness the behavior during feeding time. Staff on hand maintained an old circus like showmanship approach to the feeding and crowds clammered to get a look a the fierce beasts.
If you take a look at the photos here you can see that a cat could get his or her paws out of the enclosure and grab someone standing within range. Big cats exhibit fierce possessive behavior during feeding time sometimes grabbing at anything within range.
These are close ups and more photos of the San Francisco Lion House can be accessed here.
A few of the incident articles:
KCBS Reports Tiger Attack at San Francisco Zoo Lion House
