Rare Tiger Dies on Way to S.D. Zoo

A rare Malaysian tiger, one of only about 200 in existence, died while being flown here from Kuala Lumpur in a crate that was partly wrapped in plastic and barely larger than the animal itself, authorities said Tuesday.

The 100-pound female tiger was one of two, 10-month-old sister cubs that were destined on Feb. 19 for the San Diego Zoo, which plans to establish a breeding program for the endangered animal, with its orange coloring and black stripes.

The animal was ailing--if not already dead--when a Malaysian Airlines 747 stopped for two hours in Honolulu and ground cargo handlers said they smelled something foul. But before a veterinarian for the U.S. Department of Agriculture could arrive at the airport to check on the animal’s condition, the airliner already had taken off for Los Angeles.

When the plane landed at Los Angeles Feb. 19, concluding the 24-hour trip, the cub was dead, either from dehydration or hyperthermia because it apparently had overheated in its small wooden cage, said Dr. Ron DeHaven, animal care supervisor for the USDA in Sacramento.

“The cage was barely larger than the animal itself,” DeHaven said. “It literally could not stand up in the crate. There was no ventilation. It was a solid wooden crate except for one end, the tail end, where there was heavy gauge wire.

“But the crate was wrapped in plastic half-way up, so that half was cut off to ventilation.”

The animal was 43 inches long from the crown of its head to the base of its tail, and the cage was just 46 inches long, a USDA inspection showed. The cage was 23 1/2 inches in height and 22 1/2 inches wide.

The investigation into the cub’s death will focus on cargo handlers in Honolulu and whether the animal was properly caged for shipment in Kuala Lumpur, where the two cubs were born in captivity, according to sources close to the investigation.

The two tigers were on loan from the Malaysian Wildlife Authority to the San Diego Zoo.

Dr. Zainal Zainuddin, veterinarian at the Melaka Zoo outside Kuala Lumpur, said he was “puzzled, saddened and very, very sorry” over the death of the cub. But he said that the crate used to ship it had been used successfully before without incident.

“I cannot comment who is to blame, but the crate has been used previously without problem and the cub was perfectly healthy,” he said.

Zainuddin speculated that the ventilation holes on the end of the crate might have been blocked when the crate was placed in the cargo hold. He also insisted that the crate was large enough for the cub.

“When we packed it, the animal could easily turn around in the crate and stand,” he said. “Perhaps rigor mortis set in, making the animal seem longer than it was.”

He said he could not explain the plastic around the crate. “I’m really puzzled by that,” he said.

Zainuddin said this was the first time an animal from his zoo had died in transit and that he was awaiting the results of the necropsy.

Jeff Jouett, spokesman for the San Diego Zoological Society, which operates the San Diego Zoo, where the two cubs were headed, said: “It’s beyond disappointment. We’re outraged about this. We’re mad as hell.

“There can be no excuse for how those tigers were shipped, and we’re hoping someone will be called to account for it,” Jouett said. “To say that we’re shocked, saddened and angered is putting it mildly.”

The San Diego Zoo had planned to work with the Cincinnati Zoo--which has one male and two female Malaysian tigers--to develop a cooperative breeding program for the animal. The two zoos are the only ones in the United States that have Malaysian tigers, also known as corbetti tigers.

The surviving female cub--which was said to be “stressed” by the flight--is now in routine quarantine at the San Diego Zoo before going on display in its Tiger River exhibit.

At the zoo’s request, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began an investigation into the incident and is considering pressing criminal charges or a civil suit, said Larry Farrington, senior special agent for its Los Angeles office.

Farrington said he could not discuss the details of the investigation but expected it to be concluded within several weeks. He said the reason one animal died and the other lived may be because “the cage with the live animal was bigger than the cage with the dead animal. This is pretty simple stuff.”

The cub’s death is the second in recent weeks involving the transportation of exotic animals. Last Friday, Hannibal, the Los Angeles Zoo’s five-ton African bull elephant, died after being sedated for shipment to Mexico.

And for the San Diego Zoological Society, the cub’s death was the second within four days involving rare tigers used in captive breeding programs. On Feb. 15, a Sumatran tiger was shot and killed at the San Diego Wild Animal Park after it escaped its enclosure through a hole beneath its fence, created by heavy rain run-off. The tiger made a move to jump the animal park’s perimeter fence when it was shot.

The International Air Transport Assn. sets guidelines for its members--including Malaysian Airlines--on the shipment of live animals, including specifications for adequate ventilation with air holes.

According to the guidelines, the cage’s dimensions “shall allow the animal to turn completely around freely, or shall prevent it from turning at all. The height shall provide adequate space for the animal to stand upright with head extended, the length shall permit it to lay in the full prone position.”

A USDA inspector said that of the cage’s six walls, only one--at the cub’s rear end--had ventilation through heavy gauge mesh wire. There were no other breathing holes and the bottom and inside walls were lined “with metal sheet,” he noted in an internal memo to his boss.

A USDA veterinarian in Honolulu, Dr. Elizabeth Lyons, said she learned from authorities in Honolulu that the airplane containing the two tigers had landed there, and that one was in distress, according to a USDA memo detailing the incident that was obtained by The Times.

But by the time she got to the airport, the jumbo jet had left. She called to alert the San Diego Zoo.

“No care was provided for either tiger in Hawaii,” USDA veterinarian Wensley Koch wrote in his report to DeHaven and other superiors.

The Malaysian Airlines manager in Honolulu “claims he saw the crates but not the cats and that no one told him the tiger was sick,” according to the USDA memo. “However, the cargo handlers said that the cargo hold smelled like a dead animal was present.”

“The tiger that died was apparently grossly mishandled by both the shipper and the airline,” Koch wrote. “The Honolulu station manager (for Malaysian Airlines) unquestionably considered punctuality to be more important than animal welfare.”

Ralph Knox, administrative executive for Malaysian Airline’s North America operations, said he had “heard about the incident” but knew few details.

“The shipper does the crating and all the handling,” Knox said. “And the animal is only accepted according to the guidelines of live animal carriage. Our agent looks at the documents and the cage, but he does not, nor is expected to have, expertise on the health and condition of the animal.”

Cargo handling of Malaysian Airline flights through Honolulu is done by Canadian Airlines International.

Its cargo manager in Honolulu, Harry Yanagishita, said he wasn’t working when the Malaysian airline stopped there Feb. 19, but that normal practice is for Malaysian Airlines officials to notify his crews, in advance, if live animals are aboard.

“Anytime we get live animals coming through here, the USDA has a vet to check on them. But it’s possible that, in this case, there was no advisory from the origin (of the flight) that animals were aboard,” Yanagishita said.

“Then, if we see it on the manifest, we’ll get ahold of the vet, but the vet might not be able to get here in time before the plane takes off.

“We don’t get to personally see the animals at all,” he said. “That’s not our job.”

Jouett, of the San Diego Zoo, said small cats like the Malaysian and Sumatran tigers usually ship well, and there hasn’t been a need in the past for the zoo to accompany such an animal in transit.

“We’ve had tigers from Jakarta and from Australia flown to San Diego with no problems at all,” he said. “And Cincinnati’s tigers arrived there safely from Malaysia, alive and well.

“There’s just no history to make us suspect there would be any potential problems.”

He said that, when the zoo contacted Malaysian authorities about the death of their cub, “they were concerned and said they would look into it.”

Jouett said the San Diego Zoo still expects to receive a male Malaysian tiger for the breeding program.

The USDA only has jurisdiction of animals that are in zoological parks or on domestic flights, and not over animals being flown to the United States from overseas origins, DeHaven said. Regulations addressing the care of those animals are assigned to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for enforcement--but in this case, those officials did not intervene until the plane landed in Los Angeles, by which time the animal already had died.

Concern for a public relations nightmare was addressed in Koch’s letter.

“Although USDA claims not to have jurisdiction in this type of occurrence, public perception of our animal welfare role may cause us to suffer extremely bad publicity in this case in spite of the fact that we have actually gone above and beyond the call of duty,” he wrote.

The Humane Society of the United States was distressed by the animal’s death and bothered that the cub wasn’t accompanied by a trained animal keeper, said Charlene Drennon, its West Coast director.