Pets & Animals

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5 / KCBS / AP / BCN) ― Renovations at the San Francisco Zoo's tiger exhibit, which was closed after a deadly mauling Christmas Day, should be done by next week at which time the exhibit will reopen to the public, zoo officials said at a city committee hearing Monday.

A team of tiger experts has spent recent days examining the big cat grotto and reviewing safety procedures following the death of a San Jose teenager and wounding of two others in the Dec. 25 attack.

The three-person team sent by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, which accredits facilities nationwide, arrived Saturday, said zoo spokeswoman Lora LaMarca. The review was wrapping up Monday, but the findings would not immediately be released.

Zoo officials said grotto renovations to be completed by early February included new exhibit barriers that will be at least 19 feet high -- nearly 7 feet higher than the wall at the time of the attack and about 3 feet higher than AZA recommendations.

The additions under way also include raising the grottos' concrete walls to the recommended height of 16.4 feet, topped by glass screens for public viewing and wire mesh fencing surrounded by foliage, said Yomi Agunbiade, general manager of the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department.

Workers also were installing electrified "hot wires" at the top of the walls, Agunbiade said. The project was expected to be finished Feb. 7 at a cost of about $1 million.

The zoo's tigers and lions have remained in their indoor enclosures since the renovations began just after the attacks but would be let back outside as soon as the work was completed, zoo officials said.

An escaped 250-pound Siberian tiger killed 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr. and wounded brothers Paul Dhaliwal, 19, and Kulbir Dhaliwal, 23, on Dec. 25.

The zoo has no video cameras monitoring the big cat exhibit. Neither investigators nor the brothers have described in detail how they believe the tiger left the enclosure. The zoo's director has said he believes the animal climbed or leapt out.

"Many facts about the events on Christmas Day remain unknown," zoo director Manuel Mollinedo said at the Board of Supervisors' Government Audit and Oversight Committee hearing at City Hall. "I believe something unusual and extraordinary happened."

The zoo was working with a security contractor to have a video surveillance system installed, Mollinedo said. Zoo keepers were playing games with the facility's lions and tigers showing them the movie "The Lion King" to keep them occupied while they were stuck inside, he said.

Mollinedo said planning and coordination of emergency responses by police, firefighters and zoo staff has also improved and a siren system is now in place to warn the staff and public if a dangerous animal escapes.

Animals whose escape would be rated a "Code 1" danger include lions, cougars, tigers and chimpanzees, Mollinedo told Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier in answer to a question.

Zoological Society board chairman Nick Podell told the committee: "Under no circumstances is it OK for an animal to escape. There is no excuse and the focus of the Zoological Society is to make sure it will never happen again."

Podell said the organization was concentrating on "safety, safety, safety for employees, animals and the public."

Carl Friedman, the recreation and park department's director of animal care and control, said he was convening a peer review panel of zoo and safety experts to make recommendations on animal safety and welfare.
 
Friedman, who noted, "This tragedy has sent shock waves around the zoo world," said he hoped to have the panel in place within two weeks.

Committee chair Sean Elsbernd said he expects to reconvene the committee in six weeks to two months to discuss that panel's report.

While zoo safety was improving in the wake of the fatal tiger attack, ongoing questions remained about the effectiveness and oversight of the public-private San Francisco Zoo partnership.

The zoo, Northern California's largest, has been operated and managed by the nonprofit San Francisco Zoological Society since 1993 under a lease agreement with the city.

Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi asked bluntly, "Is the public-private partnership working?"

Agunbiade answered, "I think the public-private partnership has benefited the zoo greatly....Overall, it has worked."

Oversight of the zoo is shared by the zoo society board, the city Recreation and Park Commission, a Joint Zoo Committee of the two groups and the Board of Supervisors.

Elsbernd said after Monday's meeting, "The zoo is the city's property. We'll be keeping a much closer watch from now on."

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