Jack Hanna Grizzly Bear Attack: San Francisco Zoo Tiger Attack and Jack Hanna’s Rush to Judgment

Has Jack Hanna apologized for blaming San Francisco Zoo tiger attack on victims?

San Francisco Zoo Tiger Enclosure

TV host Jack Hanna, director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo, reported his own close encounter with three grizzly bears on a hike with his wife on Grinnell Glacier in Montana. Hanna told CBS reporter Harry Smith, Hanna had to use several shots of pepper spray to ward off a grizzly bear attack. Hanna told Smith he’d fired off three shots of the pepper spray, leaving only one shot of pepper spray left in the can when the bear backed off and the grizzly bear, with two other grizzly bears left the scene. According to Hanna, packing pepper spray is more effective than packing a weapon to protect against a bear attack.

In December of 2007, a 350 pound Siberian tiger at the San Francisco Zoo killed a 17-yr-old boy then severely mauled the boy’s two friends inside the zoo before the San Francisco cops shot the tiger. Two hours after 17-yr-old Carlos Sousas was mauled to death and his two friends attacked by the tiger, Jack Hanna disputed a zoo official who “insisted the tiger did not get out through an open door and must have climbed or leaped out”.

One zoo official insisted the tiger did not get out through an open door and must have climbed or leaped out. But Jack Hanna, former director of the Columbus Zoo and a frequent guest on TV, said such a leap would be an unbelievable feat, and “virtually impossible.”

“There’s something going on here. It just doesn’t feel right to me,” he said. “It just doesn’t add up to me.”

Jack Hanna, on CNN News, two hours after the tiger mauling death, called for “involuntary manslaughter” charges against the two boys mauled by the tiger after news sources claimed the three friends had used slingshots to provoke the tiger, and, authorities discovered vodka in the boy’s car.

Jack Hanna:

“Now, when you have a fence and you have a little territory about four feet there then you have a moat, when you cross that fence, especially when you have no zoo visitors there, in an area I call “no man’s territory”, just walking in there is going to make the tiger go like this and say, hey, what’s going on here.
Like if somebody came in your yard at home. Now, if they’re all the sudden firing something at the tiger, whether it be a slingshot or whatever they’re firing at the tiger, or dangling feet over, then the tiger’s going to get quite upset. It it’s true, there was a slingshot, and they were firing things at that tiger, then that is sick as far as I’m concerned. Forget the word, taunting, that is sick and, if it was me, I’ve heard about this two hours ago, to me there should be involuntary manslaughter charges. The tiger’s gone, the boy’s gone, so what’s left, you have two guys left.”

Jack Hanna stated he knew the tiger couldn’t have escaped from the enclosure, not even in the next “hundred years”. Jack said, “was it the wall being four feet too low, maybe, but “how high do we go (zoo keepers) to protect ourselves and the public and at least enjoy a visitation to the zoolife in the park?”

Here’s the link to Jack Hanna’s defense of the San Francisco Zoo and Jack Hanna’s conclusion the three boys caused the tiger mauling incident, with Jack Hanna calling for the two boys who survived the attack to be charged with manslaughter, two hours after the third boy, Carlos Souza was mauled to death by the 350 pd. Siberian tiger. Jack Hanna emphatically stating the San Francisco tiger zoo enclosure was adequate protection for the public. In the CNN interview Jack Hanna said he would “apologize if he was wrong”.

Three days after the report, news media reported the three boys had criminal records for “public intoxication”
and reported the zoo’s claim the wall was “18 ft” high was wrong, the San Francisco Zoo admitted the wall was 12.5 ft. tall, below the national zoo standards for tiger enclosures.

On February 13, 2009, the San Francisco’s CBS 5 reported:

The parents of a 17-year-old boy killed by an escaped tiger at the San Francisco Zoo have reached a settlement in their wrongful death lawsuit, their lawyer said Friday.

Financial terms of the payment to the San Jose family were undisclosed, but attorney Michael Cardoza said the zoo agreed to erect and maintain a bench in memory of Carlos Sousa Jr. as part of the settlement.

The memorial bench will bear an etched image of Carlos Sousa and the dates of his birth and death, Cardoza said. It has not been determined where it would be placed at the zoo.

And,

The Sousas’ lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court claimed the enclosure’s wall was lower than the recommended national standard and alleged that zoo officials ignored employees’ warnings that the wall was not tall enough.

The survivors, Kulbir and Paul Dhaliwal, have sued in federal court over the attack. The brothers’ lawsuit names the San Francisco Police Department, the zoo and a public relations firm hired by the zoo, claiming the zoo engaged in a smear campaign against them.

CBS 5 reported the authorities never charged the Dhaliwal brothers with taunting the tiger, with the cops dropping their investigation a month after the attack.

While the MSM was busy reporting the Dhaliwal brothers and Carlos Souza had used slingshots and were purportedly drunk, with Jack Hanna defending the San Francisco Zoo stating the enclosure was “safe” and therefore, there had to be something “else” that happened. Hanna calling for the Dhaliwal brothers to be charged with involuntary manslaughter–Hanna made the statement two hours after Carlos Souza was dead, the Dhaliwal brothers were being treated at the hospital after the tiger mauled one brother, then chased the other brother to the zoo’s cafe where he screamed for help while the tiger was mauling him–what wasn’t being reported:

A year earlier, on December 23, 2006, the same 350-pd Siberian tiger attacked a zookeeper in front of horrified onlookers at the San Francisco Zoo:

A 350-pound Siberian tiger named Tatiana attacked her keeper at the San Francisco Zoo during feeding time Friday afternoon as dozens of visitors looked on, causing deep lacerations to the keeper’s arms.

The keeper, who zoo officials refused to name but sources identified as Lori Komejan, was taken to San Francisco General Hospital, where she underwent surgery for the cuts.

Warning sign at San Francisco Zoo

On January 1, 2007, the San Francisco Chronicle reported:

“The tiger ate her hand. It slowly proceeded to eat the rest of her arm.”

That’s how Vikram Chari described the horrifying spectacle that he and his 6-year-old son witnessed at the San Francisco Zoo on the Friday before Christmas, when a Siberian tiger named Tatiana attacked her keeper.

I bet that wasn’t the type of “experience” those zoo-goers expected when visiting the San Francisco Zoo. Which leads back to Jack Hanna, director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo. Two hours after 17-yr-old Carlos Sousa was mauled to death and the Dwahali brothers attacked in a zoo, with the same tiger mauling a zookeeper one year earlier in front of “horrified” onlookers, Jack Hanna did more than speculate about what happened during the 2007 Christmas Day tiger attack at the San Francisco Zoo. An infuriated Hanna cast blame on the three young men, claiming it was their fault they were attacked by the tiger, Carlos’ fault he was killed. Hanna stating he knew for a fact the tiger enclosure was safe to the public with Hanna adding, what more can zookeepers do to keep visits to the zoo “enjoyable” for the public. Based on the facts, visitors to the San Francisco Zoo who witnessed the tiger “eating” a zookeepers’ hand didn’t have that enjoyable of a “zoo experience”. The same Siberian tiger who jumped over the zoo’s 12.5 ft wall one year later killing Carlos and mauling the Dwahali brothers, a fete which Siberian tigers are capable of which is why it’s been recommended zoos put up an 18 ft. wall. According to news sources, workers at the zoo had warned higher-ups about the tiger and the less-than adequate enclosure.

Did Jack Hanna “apologize” to the Dwahali brothers, and, to Carlos Sousa’s family?

We couldn’t find any info Hanna issued the apology.

SF Zoo Tiger Attack: Tiger Debate Touched Off

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Tags: grizzly bear attack, Jack Hanna, tiger attack