Zoo's public feeding of big cats praised,condemned by experts

Zoo's public feedings of big cats praised, condemned by experts
editorials and opinion

By PATRICIA YOLLIN
Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Thrilling. Barbaric. Primal. Anachronistic. Awe-inspiring. Unnerving. Sick.

Those are some of the adjectives used to describe the public feeding of lions and tigers at the San Francisco Zoo _ a venerable ritual that has stopped with the closing of the zoo's Lion House after a gruesome attack on a keeper three days before Christmas, observed by scores of visitors.

In the wake of the Dec. 22 mauling of Lori Komejan, whose right arm was chewed up just after mealtime by a Siberian tiger named Tatiana, the future of the Lion House is unclear.

"It will be closed until further notice," said zoo spokesman Paul Garcia.

Over the decades, generations of Bay Area residents have watched the big cats devour chunks of horsemeat in their cages inside the Lion House. The public feeding occurs six days a week at 2 p. m., when the four lions and three tigers are summoned from their outdoor enclosures. On Tuesdays and Fridays, the menu includes dead rabbits as well.

The event is one of the zoo's most popular attractions _ and increasingly one of its most controversial.

"It was the highlight for me," recalled 72-year-old Bob Paterson of Rocklin (Placer County), who grew up in the city.

"One time when I was a kid, I walked 5 miles to the zoo," said the retired PG&E employee. "I got there at 2 p.m. It was raining, and I was the only one there. When one lion roars, they all roar. And I said to myself, 'I'm in Africa.' "

He visited that continent in 1978 and 1984 and will return in May _ all prompted by his Lion House experiences.

Other zoo patrons have come away with far different memories.

"It was barbaric," said Shannon Rizzo, who lives in Lafayette and homeschools her four children. "It seemed like something out of the Middle Ages. A public gathering for something that's kind of private. It would be OK if we were unseen observers and it were less of a circus."

Katie Harrar, an event producer from San Francisco, said she was ambivalent about the feedings before Tatiana's encounter with Komejan but now is convinced that they should stop.

"I think we're beyond that, honestly," Harrar said. "I want to learn, but not to the extent of watching somebody toss a carcass and watch the animal go nuts over it. It's old-school, and it's not appropriate anymore."

About three years ago, Harrar dropped by the Lion House with her 1-year-old niece, who was in a stroller, and noticed that the lions and tigers were eyeing the small children in the crowd as if they were a "potential meal."

"It was really disconcerting and unnerving," she said. "It got me thinking, 'Who's really watching whom?' "

Harrar wasn't imagining things. Martine Colette, founder of the Wildlife WayStation refuge for wild and exotic animals in Southern California, said, "Small children are always a temptation for large predators because they're like moving hors d'oeuvres."

Although the pros and cons of the public feedings could be debated endlessly _ in terms of their effects on keepers, onlookers and animals _ most experts agree with Colette.

"We don't allow children under 7," said Louis Dorfman, an animal behaviorist with the International Exotic Feline Sanctuary in Boyd, Texas. "It's just the size of the kids. They're inherently looked on as prey."