Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright

Two deaths, and the story keeps getting stranger and stranger. For those of you from Mars, or for anyone who's been under a rock for the past week, on Christmas Day a rare Siberian tiger escaped its enclosure and attacked three young men at the San Francisco Zoo. The first young man died from his wounds, and the tiger was shot by police. The other two victims are brothers (and friends of the dead man).

Tragic story for everyone involved, yes, including the tiger. Given the headline in the New York Post, I would say, especially the tiger:
TIGER BROTHERS HAD SLINGSHOTS

January 1, 2008 -- SAN FRANCISCO - Two brothers who were injured when a tiger attacked them at the San Francisco Zoo had slingshots on them at the time, a source said.

An empty vodka bottle was also found in a car used by Amritpal Dhaliwal, 19, and his brother, Kulbir, 23, on the day of the mauling, which left 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr. dead, according to the source.

The discoveries could be an indication that the brothers may have taunted the 350-pound Siberian tiger before it leapt from its grotto.
Just the New York Post, you say? Well here's an odd development from the local ABC News affiliate:
Tiger-attacked brothers hire legal pit bull
The brothers who survived the vicious tiger attacks at San Francisco Zoo last week have hired legal pit bull Mark Geragos in anticipation of filing a lawsuit against the zoo.
Sure, everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty. And everyone deserves competent legal representation. Some of the poor folks who have hired Geragos to help them in their times of woe include:

Michael Jackson
Wynona Ryder
Scott Peterson

And although he didn't represent Mark Vick, noted dog killer, he did offer this advice on one of his many t.v. interviews (the man can't see a camera without doing an interview): Geragos said Vick and his defense team should be thinking about casting a positive light on the quarterback. "The best thing is to put a good face on the matter, do something charitable immediately," said Geragos.

And lo and behold, Gergaos is now saying this about his tiger brother clients: they were simply good samaritans, trying to get help for their dying friend:

Attorney: Zoo guard ignored plea for help
According to Geragos, the tiger initially attacked Sousa and Paul Dhaliwal about 4:30 p.m. While Sousa was seriously hurt, Paul Dhaliwal escaped, and he and his brother ran 300 yards to a zoo cafe where they had eaten earlier.

The brothers then spotted a female security guard who appeared "diffident" when told of the escaped tiger, Geragos said.

"Who knows what would have happened if the guard had acted earlier?" Geragos said. "But Carlos would have stood a better chance of not dying. And maybe the police would not have shot the tiger as well."
I want to know more about the slingshots and vodka .... Geragos?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ya, these Dhaliwal brothers are scum bags. They are adults but act like their 6 year olds. I only wish that Tiger had gotten them too. What is wrong with people?!!

Mauigirl said...

Very interesting and not at all surprising to me. Tigers do not usually attack people unprovoked. I'm tempted to say, that if they were taunting the tiger, it served them right. I'd feel bad about them if the tiger hadn't also been killed. But I feel the tiger got a bad deal here. I guess we will never know exactly what happened.

Anonymous said...

Interesting that in some reports the "lawyer" knows more about the incident than the police who have not finished investigating it....

Like you, I want to know more about the slingshots and vodka.... weapons and underage drinking.... (who supplied the vodka to minors?) etc.

I too feel for the tiger (and for the zoo).

Anonymous said...

no matter how you look at this story it boils down to one thing. many, many people still do not give animals the respect that they deserve.