The San Francisco Zoo is in danger of being deemed the most dangerous in the United States after a series of safety incidents, including a zookeeper who was chased by a grizzly bear last year.
An investigation by the San Francisco Chronicle has exposed multiple serious incidents in which employee safety and animal welfare have been compromised on the 100-acre city-owned parcel in the southwest corner of the city.
The zoo, which receives $4 million a year in taxpayer money, first made headlines more than a decade ago when an escaped tiger tragically killed a visitor on Christmas Day 2007. followed the heartbreaking death of a baby gorilla in 2014.
New surveillance footage has revealed the moment a zookeeper narrowly escaped death when a grizzly bear chased him through an enclosure last May.
There was also the recent undisclosed death of a young penguin who was fatally struck by a “guillotine” door, boosting morale at the zoo.
The San Francisco Zoo has potentially earned the title of “America’s most dangerous zoo” following a series of recent incidents, including a keeper who was chased by a released grizzly bear and a visitor who was mauled to death by a escaped tiger
A video has captured the terrifying incident in which a caretaker narrowly escaped the clutches of a grizzly bear last May, which had somehow gone unreported in the media until now.
The situation has led many workers to resign or say they have “lost faith in the management” of the 95-year-old institution.
There has been a 19 per cent decline in the number of zookeepers and other union staff between 2019 and the end of 2023, according to the report.
The worrying trend has left the zoo’s remaining keepers, who are trained to care for more than 2,000 animals, with the difficult task of overseeing even more exhibits, raising significant concerns about public and worker safety.
But the zoo board has dismissed the recent incidents as “based on outdated or simply false information” and “uniformly objectionable and unsubstantiated.”
Video footage that captured the terrifying incident in which a caretaker narrowly escaped the clutches of a grizzly bear last May had not appeared in the media until now.
The zookeeper found himself on the run from a massive 500-pound brown bear named Kiona after a carelessness in securing his den allowed him to roam free.
The doorman ran through doors and barriers to safety, while his colleagues managed to get Kiona away from public areas.
Staff who came to the keeper’s aid found him panicking and the grizzly wandering freely, then-deputy curator of the zoo’s carnivore department, Travis Shields, told the Chronicle.
Shields, who was absent during that particular time but was informed by his employees afterward, ultimately resigned last July after “top management ignored those in charge’s concerns,” the outlet reported.
“Eventually, something more serious will happen in the future if they continue down the same path,” Shields said.
Fortunately, no injuries were reported, but this alarming incident, along with other recent safety lapses, has caused unrest among zoo staff and led to resignations.
In 2007, 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr was killed and two brothers severely maimed after a 300-pound Siberian tiger escaped from its enclosure and went on a rampage.
A police officer examines a tiger enclosure at the San Francisco Zoo on Wednesday, December 26, 2007.
After the bear incident, modifications were made to the enclosure, including painting the walls a lighter color and spray painting new “Open” and “Closed” signs to improve visibility for keepers, helping them Determine if the door is properly closed.
New latches have also been installed to ensure handlers close the den doors before locking them.
In 2007, 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr was killed and two brothers severely maimed after a 300-pound Siberian tiger escaped from its enclosure and went on a rampage.
In the recording, one of the injured was calling for help and asking why it was taking so long to arrive, shouting: “My brother is about to die here!”
A lawyer for Paul, 19, and Kulbir Dhaliwal, 23, said at the time that help did not arrive for 30 minutes.
Police had warned that the escaped tiger that savagely attacked three zoo visitors may have been deliberately let out of its enclosure.
To reach the public area, the 350-pound female would have had to jump an 18-foot-wide moat and scale a 20-foot wall at the San Francisco Zoo.
But the more sinister possibility is that the Siberian tiger, which tore off a zookeeper’s arm during a public feeding session, was released through criminal malice.
The emergency operator told the brother that paramedics cannot come to their aid until they are sure they are not in danger.
“We have to make sure the paramedics don’t get reprimanded, because if the paramedics get hurt, no one will help you,” they reportedly said.
The victim screamed: ‘My brother is about to die here!’
The dispatcher asked him to calm down, but they said, ‘Can you fly a helicopter here? Because I don’t see a damn ambulance.”
The recordings reveal initial disbelief among zoo staff over the tiger’s escape. They also detail how police located and then shot the beast, named Tatiana.
They begin at 5:05 pm when a zoo worker called emergency services to report that the frantic siblings were calling for help.
In the background a woman is heard saying, “I don’t know if they’re on drugs or not.” They are screaming about an animal that has attacked them and there is no animal outside…she says it was attacked by a lion.’
The zoo worker said, “That’s practically impossible.”
At 5:10 p.m., the zoo worker learned that an animal was loose. “We have a Code 1. They say a tiger has come out,” he told the telephone operator and an evacuation began.
About 10 minutes later, a paramedic or zoo employee reported that Mr. Sousa, who was attacked just outside the tiger enclosure, was seriously injured. “This person needs help now,” he said.
After mauling Sousa, the beast crawled into the zoo’s café. One of the Dhaliwal brothers, it is not clear which, called for help from outside the cafe and said: “It is a matter of life and death.”
A group of visitors tours the many tunnels inside the African Savannah exhibit, nine days after the deadly tiger attack at the San Francisco Zoo.
That’s when he asked the paramedics to arrive quickly.
At 5:27 p.m., a police officer shouted into the radio: ‘We have the tiger in the cafe. We have the tiger attacking the victim.
Less than a minute later, a call came over the radio to stop shooting. ‘We have the cat. “We shot the cat,” an officer said. “The victim is being treated.”
Years later, tensions remain between zoo leaders and their front-line workers, according to the Chronicle report.
More than fifteen current and former workers have expressed complaints about management’s handling of animal welfare and safety protocols.
Three former employees told the Chronicle they left the zoo over arguments with higher-ups over animal welfare standards.
Melissa Lory, zookeeper from 2019 to 2021; Trisha Cassianni, goalkeeper from 2007 to 2021; and Dayna Sherwood, a keeper from 2006 to 2018, described cases where animals suffered because of decisions made by management about medical care or housing.
“I knew nothing was going to change when it came to my concerns for the welfare of the animals I was responsible for,” Lory, a former orangutan keeper, told the outlet. “I knew it was going to keep getting worse.”
He said the primates lived in an enclosure without access to a yard.
Cassianni, who also worked with orangutans, agreed, calling the zoo “dysfunctional.”
“It just seemed like the zoo didn’t care enough about the animals,” he added.
Another of the 15 employees told the outlet that he had raised concerns about the grizzly bear’s safety with management years before the May 2023 incident.
“I felt intensely, but ambiguously, unsafe,” the person said in an email.
Edward Poole, a board member and president emeritus of the San Francisco Zoological Society, the nonprofit organization that oversees zoo operations, dismissed the safety concerns as unfounded, saying they were based on outdated or inaccurate information. .
He called them “based on outdated or simply false information” and were “uniformly objectionable and unsubstantiated.”
In an email response to the Chronicle, he emphasized that the grizzly bear incident posed no threat to visitors and noted that a subsequent inspection by the U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed the zoo’s compliance with its requirements. license.
He explained that the situation arose when a zookeeper entered the grizzly bear habitat area under the belief that the bear was confined to another section and stated that the problem was quickly resolved due to the zoo’s unwavering dedication to the well-being of both its personnel as well as the animals under their care.
“One of our zookeepers entered the grizzly bear’s habitat area at a time when the bear was believed to be restricted to another part of its containment area,” he said.
‘Due to a series of security measures employed, the situation was resolved quickly. …This incident underscores our strong commitment to ensuring the well-being of both our staff and the animals in our care,” he added.