Midwestern Gothic

This past Christmas, a 350-pound tiger named Tatiana escaped her enclosure at the San Francisco Zoo, killing a teenager and severely mauling two others. Tatiana was later shot and killed by police officers. The incident garnered national media attention after it was later discovered that the walls surrounding the tiger enclosure were four feet lower than they should have been.

Question: What does this say about tiger attacks and the safety of the general public, if anything?

Matt: Why is it that every time something bad happens, an isolated incident, if you will, (like, say, a tiger gets out of its enclosure and kills a man), people freak out and think enhanced security is the answer when the odds of something like that ever happening again are so small and were so small in the first place, that no one even thought of enhancing security in the past?

Rob: My problem is this: it’s a wild effing tiger! There doesn’t need to be a huge case about it. This is what people are asking: “We need to figure out how and why a wild tiger would attack a human.” Jesus, ding ding ding ding.

Matt: But it’s not just that a tiger’s instinct might be to kill a human. I’m talking about the infrastructure. It was obviously secure enough for so long a time that nothing ever happened, and then one thing happens (granted someone died), but it was so isolated and the reasons can probably be identified, that completely overhauling the enclosure, say by building a 19 ft wall, seems a bit exaggerated, excessive and extravagant.

Rob: Yes, I agree, and chances are zoos all over the country are now going to redo tiger enclosures, just to satisfy the general public and assure them this won’t happen again. But let me assure you, if a 350 pound tiger wants to escape, it will. What the hell do you think it does all day in a cage? It trains.

Matt: You raise an interesting point about other zoos possibly copying the efforts of San Francisco. And they would probably do so for one reason, completely void of logic: nobody wants to be the second party guilty of “oversight.” Public outcry would be deafening. People are so ingrained to look for reasons something happened that they ignore the fact that similar events can be so coincidental and completely unrelated to each other that they merit no response. Building a wall will most likely add no security to the zoo and rob patrons of an unobstructed view all in the name of appeasing an irrational public.

Rob: Well, guess we’re just going to have to agree to agree on this one, then. Can’t wait to see what happens when Bobo the “tame” water buffalo tears through the Toledo Zoo and runs amok.