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Exotic Incident #1090

Incident Date:
12/25/2007
Location:
San Francisco, CA - USA
Facility Name:
San Francisco Zoo
Facility Type:
Accredited AZA Facility (AZA)
Incident Category:
Escape of animal (EA)
Species:
Big Cats
Animal:
Siberian Tiger
Animal disposition:
Dead

Summary:

Tatiana, a Siberian tiger, escaped from her enclosure at the San Francisco Zoo. She killed one visitor and mauled two others before being shot and killed by police officers. The zoo was closed temporarily out of respect for the victims and an investigation was undertaken to determine how Tatiana escaped. Her enclosure had been fortified following an attack on a zookeeper in 2006, and had only been re-opened since September. In that 2006 incident, Tatiana seriously injured a zookeeper during a regular afternoon publicly viewed feeding. The zoo was later ruled responsible for that incident by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA), who blamed the incident on poor training and the way the tiger enclosure was designed. (see previous incident of 12/22/06)

Action take by Born Free USA:

Notes: