Killing of Tiger That Escaped Pen Protested

Animal rights activists were decrying the shooting death of a Sumatran tiger by rangers at the San Diego Wild Animal Park after the animal escaped from its enclosure during a weekend rainstorm.

Two rangers, one armed with a .243-caliber rifle and the other with a .458-caliber rifle, shot the male tiger when he ran from underbrush adjacent to the perimeter fence Saturday. The animal sustained two bullet wounds, including one to the head, spokesman Tom Hanscom said.

Sally Mackler, director of the animal rights group San Diego Animal Advocates, said she intends to report the incident to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. She also wants to talk with park officials about their policies for dealing with escaped animals.

“I would think they would have a more humane way of handling the situation other than running it down and shooting it,” Mackler said.

But Hanscom said park employees followed the guidelines set forth in a 47-page manual on policies and procedures for dealing with escaped animals. The manual instructs workers to “dispatch at will” all medium-to-large cats.

The 300-pound cat was among six Sumatran tigers at the park and was the first tiger to escape from the enclosure since it was built in 1973, one year after the park opened, Hanscom said.

The animal, a 2-year-old male named Bali, got out of the exhibit when rain undermined part of the fence. The animal had reached the park’s back fence when a security ranger spotted it at 6:10 p.m., Hanscom said.

The park’s veterinarian attempted to fire a tranquilizer dart at Bali, but could not get close enough to hit it without endangering himself, Hanscom said.

Twelve workers, hampered by darkness and rain, spent 75 minutes trying to capture the animal before park officials concluded that there was no way to tranquilize it and ordered it to be killed at 7:25 p.m., Hanscom said.

Park officials said the rangers believed that the tiger could have escaped from the park by clearing the six-foot-tall perimeter fence, which is about 300 yards from the tiger exhibit, Hanscom said.

The tiger exhibit is surrounded by a 12-foot-high fence set in three feet of concrete and topped with four feet of additional fencing angled back into the exhibit. But the hard rain Saturday washed out the concrete footing, allowing the tiger to escape under the fence, Hanscom said.

“For obvious reasons, that has to be the most secure fence at the Wild Animal Park,” he said.

The park’s five other Sumatran tigers will be quarantined this week while park officials repair storm damage to their one-acre exhibit.

Sumatran tigers are classified as an endangered species.