The Writing Mamas Daily Blog
Each day on the Writing Mamas Daily Blog, a different member will write about mothering.If you're a mom then you've said these words, you've made these observations and you've lived these situations - 24/7.
And for that, you are a goddess.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Tatiana
In our house talks about animals that escape from a zoo occur regularly. Usually the escapee is tranquilized and returned into the enclosures of one of the zoos that our seven- year old son created in a computer game. I try to explain how each escape negatively influences the zoo attendance, the zoo’s reputation and thus the bottom line, and in the end, the viability of the zoo.
His answer is usually switching to unlimited money mode.
I am sure Manuel Mollinedo, the director of the San Francisco Zoo wishes he could switch to that mode after a tiger jumped out of an enclosure and attacked three visitors, killing one of them on Christmas Day last week.
Police officers who found the three hundred and fifty-pound tiger sitting on top of a victim shot the animal to death. That same tiger was spared after mauling a zoo keeper during a feeding last year. The zoo could face heavy fines from regulators. It could be stripped of its exhibitor license. Its accreditation could be at risk. It could be hit with a huge lawsuit by the victims or their families. It could even face criminal charges, depending on what the investigation finds.
This would not be the first Christmas that brought gory news home. Even though the tiger attack was overshadowed by Benazir Bhutto's assassination in Pakistan, the news hit home as it was surreal to read the story hours after we spent a day at the zoo on Christmas break.
The zoo is normally open three hundred and sixty-five days a year. This year, it built a skating rink and brought reindeers for the annual holiday Reindeer Romp. Like many other families cooped up with kids for two weeks of school break, we chose to spent a day in the zoo.
We do not visit the zoo often, ironically spending more time at the zoos of other cities or abroad than our home one. It was the San Francisco Zoo, though, where I, who grew up despising zoos as stinky places where they keep animals in restrictive exhibits, learned to appreciate the effort the zoo puts into the conservation programs to breed animals like bold eagles, snow leopards, fishing cats, ocelots, as well as other species including Siberian tigers. As bizarre as it sounds, there are more of these magnificent animals in captivity (six hundred) than in the wild (four hundred) as human population encroaches onto their traditional habitats.
The fact that it is much cheaper and more convenient to have an outing to the zoo, as opposed to embarking on an African safari as our son suggested, did play a big part of our decision making as well.
Just two days before the incident, the zoo was about to close and our family was moving toward the exit after visiting the family favorite -- the snow leopard in the hidden far corner of the zoo. Dusk is the time when animals start to get active and is the best time to see them "doing stuff.” We could hear the tigers, “Au-u-u! Au-u-u!” well before we approached their alley. Gathering a small group of spectators, the three hundred and fifty pounds Panthera Tigris Altaica, a.k.a. Siberian female tiger, Tatiana, was pacing in her exhibit.
"What a big, magnificent animal," I marveled. The boys were mimicking her vocals. The self appointed opera diva paced back and forth on the meadow and then determinedly moved down the stairs into the mote. We lost sight of her down below. Trying to figure out what she was up to there, I leaned over the waist high fence of the enclosure. Seeing the tiger so close, I realized that there was no fence between me and her. It was just the height of the mote that lay between us. I watched in awe as the spectacular animal covered the almost vertical wall on her side of the mote in two jumps. The thought of her scaling our side of the mote visited me as it did apparently other visitors as well. I dismissed that thought as a “what-if;” apocalyptic fantasy that we humans often indulge in. I felt safe -- San Francisco Zoo has had tigers in captivity for decades.
Chasing the bad thoughts away, I then chased after the rest of the family that had moved on to watch the lions.
In my son's zoo an escaped animal causes panic and decreases zoo attendance. Paradoxically, the incident in the San Francisco Zoo caused a spike in interest in tigers in the neighboring Oakland Zoo. I guess we all want to understand what compelled the tiger to attack the three boys.
Even though animals do escape from zoos time to time the vast majority of visits do not involve a trip to the emergency room; and we used to regard a family outing to the zoo as a safe endeavor.
The incident did bring memories of a similar escape that happened in my hometown: Kazan, Russia. Another temperamental female tiger named, Ussuri, a new arrival to the zoo, jumped the sixteen-foot fence of the enclosure and roamed around the town for seven hours prompting an emergency situation in the city.
Ussuri was hungry and had not eaten for three days. Surprisingly, however, unlike Tatiana, she didn't attack any humans. Did the victims of the recent incident provoke the Siberian beauty to escape and attack them?
In the pretend zoo of my son's world one can see the escape occurrence easily as opposed to the real world when the first reports of both the Kazan and San Francisco escapes were received with a bit of skepticism. San Francisco Zoo does not have a camera installed in the predators’ row. The zoo is a non-profit foundation that cannot make ends meet with admission income alone. A lot of financial support comes from donors like our family. As much as it hurts to imagine one of sons' dying in a zoo outing, I resent seeing our donations covering lawsuits instead of improving the zoo.
A day before Christmas, hours before tragedy, our family decided to support our zoo paying a full membership. From feeling secure that nothing like the incident in Russia can happen in the town I now call home, my feelings toward the zoo are changing.
Just like with our country: I am proud to be part of it, I am confused and angered about how we got into such a mess.
My son still wants to be a zoo manager when he grows up. I hope what will happen to the zoo in the nearest future will not discourage his dreams.
By Dilyara Breyer
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His answer is usually switching to unlimited money mode.
I am sure Manuel Mollinedo, the director of the San Francisco Zoo wishes he could switch to that mode after a tiger jumped out of an enclosure and attacked three visitors, killing one of them on Christmas Day last week.
Police officers who found the three hundred and fifty-pound tiger sitting on top of a victim shot the animal to death. That same tiger was spared after mauling a zoo keeper during a feeding last year. The zoo could face heavy fines from regulators. It could be stripped of its exhibitor license. Its accreditation could be at risk. It could be hit with a huge lawsuit by the victims or their families. It could even face criminal charges, depending on what the investigation finds.
This would not be the first Christmas that brought gory news home. Even though the tiger attack was overshadowed by Benazir Bhutto's assassination in Pakistan, the news hit home as it was surreal to read the story hours after we spent a day at the zoo on Christmas break.
The zoo is normally open three hundred and sixty-five days a year. This year, it built a skating rink and brought reindeers for the annual holiday Reindeer Romp. Like many other families cooped up with kids for two weeks of school break, we chose to spent a day in the zoo.
We do not visit the zoo often, ironically spending more time at the zoos of other cities or abroad than our home one. It was the San Francisco Zoo, though, where I, who grew up despising zoos as stinky places where they keep animals in restrictive exhibits, learned to appreciate the effort the zoo puts into the conservation programs to breed animals like bold eagles, snow leopards, fishing cats, ocelots, as well as other species including Siberian tigers. As bizarre as it sounds, there are more of these magnificent animals in captivity (six hundred) than in the wild (four hundred) as human population encroaches onto their traditional habitats.
The fact that it is much cheaper and more convenient to have an outing to the zoo, as opposed to embarking on an African safari as our son suggested, did play a big part of our decision making as well.
Just two days before the incident, the zoo was about to close and our family was moving toward the exit after visiting the family favorite -- the snow leopard in the hidden far corner of the zoo. Dusk is the time when animals start to get active and is the best time to see them "doing stuff.” We could hear the tigers, “Au-u-u! Au-u-u!” well before we approached their alley. Gathering a small group of spectators, the three hundred and fifty pounds Panthera Tigris Altaica, a.k.a. Siberian female tiger, Tatiana, was pacing in her exhibit.
"What a big, magnificent animal," I marveled. The boys were mimicking her vocals. The self appointed opera diva paced back and forth on the meadow and then determinedly moved down the stairs into the mote. We lost sight of her down below. Trying to figure out what she was up to there, I leaned over the waist high fence of the enclosure. Seeing the tiger so close, I realized that there was no fence between me and her. It was just the height of the mote that lay between us. I watched in awe as the spectacular animal covered the almost vertical wall on her side of the mote in two jumps. The thought of her scaling our side of the mote visited me as it did apparently other visitors as well. I dismissed that thought as a “what-if;” apocalyptic fantasy that we humans often indulge in. I felt safe -- San Francisco Zoo has had tigers in captivity for decades.
Chasing the bad thoughts away, I then chased after the rest of the family that had moved on to watch the lions.
In my son's zoo an escaped animal causes panic and decreases zoo attendance. Paradoxically, the incident in the San Francisco Zoo caused a spike in interest in tigers in the neighboring Oakland Zoo. I guess we all want to understand what compelled the tiger to attack the three boys.
Even though animals do escape from zoos time to time the vast majority of visits do not involve a trip to the emergency room; and we used to regard a family outing to the zoo as a safe endeavor.
The incident did bring memories of a similar escape that happened in my hometown: Kazan, Russia. Another temperamental female tiger named, Ussuri, a new arrival to the zoo, jumped the sixteen-foot fence of the enclosure and roamed around the town for seven hours prompting an emergency situation in the city.
Ussuri was hungry and had not eaten for three days. Surprisingly, however, unlike Tatiana, she didn't attack any humans. Did the victims of the recent incident provoke the Siberian beauty to escape and attack them?
In the pretend zoo of my son's world one can see the escape occurrence easily as opposed to the real world when the first reports of both the Kazan and San Francisco escapes were received with a bit of skepticism. San Francisco Zoo does not have a camera installed in the predators’ row. The zoo is a non-profit foundation that cannot make ends meet with admission income alone. A lot of financial support comes from donors like our family. As much as it hurts to imagine one of sons' dying in a zoo outing, I resent seeing our donations covering lawsuits instead of improving the zoo.
A day before Christmas, hours before tragedy, our family decided to support our zoo paying a full membership. From feeling secure that nothing like the incident in Russia can happen in the town I now call home, my feelings toward the zoo are changing.
Just like with our country: I am proud to be part of it, I am confused and angered about how we got into such a mess.
My son still wants to be a zoo manager when he grows up. I hope what will happen to the zoo in the nearest future will not discourage his dreams.
By Dilyara Breyer
Labels: Dilyara Breyer
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