Animal Attacks | Page 32

Happy New Year!

I wanted to take a minute to wish everyone a Happy New Year! My wish for pet owners and their neighbors in 2007 is that people take pet ownership to the next level so we can keep pets in their homes happy and healthy, have neighbors that love our pets, and have pet parents work to learn the skills to help their pets be good citizens, and keep the family happy with their furry friends.

Having said that, headlines flooding my box this am are not the happiest because they deal with ongoing problems. In New York, breed specific legislation is the topic of the day and the Scotsman put out this article on another nasty pitbull attack. Breed specific legislation was implemented against pit bulls in 1991 and this article illustrates my point–if you don’t have enforcement, education, and proper confinement or supervision than that legislation is worthless.
Pit dog fighting also made the news in Daytona, Florida.

In Florida, the problem of exotic pets remains a big one since the state is one of the most liberal when it comes to private ownership of exotics. I discourage such ownership and have blogged about this before. The problems are extensive and pet wildlife that is “released into the wild” has become such a problem that Florida is having a “Exotic Pet Amnesty Day” for owners to turn in their pets instead of releasing them into an inappropriate ecosystem.

In California, the San Francisco Zoo’s tiger attack is still under investigation. (I commented and included pictures on this after it happened so visit the December archives if you missed it). This article states that more captive tigers exist than now remain in the wild. Sad if it is true. Never mind the fate of those animals who grow up and become adolescents.

Blog Posted January 2, 2007 at 8:19 am

San Francisco Zoo Tiger Attack

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. I am surprized that the practice still exists.

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–grabbing at anything within range.

In my early years at an animal acting facility, we fed the big cats from under the bottom cage bar and stood quite a way back due to the risk. Instinctual behavior surrounding feeding is possessive and highly charged.

The old timers said that most wild animals have about seven times the strength per pound of body weight–I am not sure this has been actually documented but the strength is beyond the comprehension of most people–and humbling.

Take a look at these photos of the San Francisco Zoo’s Lion House–you can see how any big cat could get his or her paws through to grab any keeper close enough to the caging.