We’ve been members of San Francisco Zoo for the past three years, and I go there frequently with my young child. But after a patron was killed at the zoo and two others critically injured by a tiger today, I’ll be reluctant to return. The man who was killed was outside the tiger, Tatiana’s, enclosure, while the two other men were eating in a cafe when they were attacked. A zookeeper was mauled last year by the same tiger.

The San Francisco Zoo is an urban zoo, set in the middle of residential neighborhoods out by San Francisco’s Ocean Beach. Many of the zoo’s “natural habitats” are truly beautiful–especially the large, hilly, tree-studded giraffe enclosure, and the lemur “forest.” But when one sees the tigers and bears pacing back and forth in their rather small enclosures surrounded by deep moats, one can’t help but feel that they’re in the wrong place. I do believe that zoos play a role in breeding and protecting species of wildlife as natural habitats worldwide dwindle, so I am not of the mindset that zoos should be summarily eliminated. Given the degree of negligence that had to be in place to allow a tiger to attack and kill a zoo patron, however, I wouldn’t be surprised if this signaled the beginning of the end for the San Francisco Zoo.

Books about Animals, Zoos:
Babylon’s Ark: The Incredible Wartime Rescue of the Baghdad Zoo, by Lawrence Anthony and Graham Spence
Why Animals Matter: The Case for Animal Protection, by Erin Williams and Margo Demello
Animal Attractions: Nature on Display at American Zoos, by Elizabeth Hanson
The Emotional Lives of Animals, by Marc Bekoff, with an introduction by Jane Goodall
Life of Pi, by Yann Martel