Zoo gets mixed grades on tiger escape

SAN FRANCISCO, March 19 (UPI) -- The San Francisco Zoo is getting both praise and criticism for its handling of a Christmas Day tiger escape that left one person dead and two injured.

The Association of Zoos and Aquariums called San Francisco's overall response to the emergency "impressive" but added that a zoo staffer was initially slow to respond to the escape, CNN reported Wednesday.

In an accreditation report, the association criticized a staff member who doubted brothers Paul and Kulbir Dhaliwal when they told him a "lion was out."

The escaped animal turned out to be a Siberian tiger named Tatiana which killed Carlos Sousa, 17, and injured the Dhaliwal brothers.

In its report, the association recommended improvements for the San Francisco Zoo's big cat enclosures, which were constructed in 1940. It recommended minimum staffing levels for the zoo, saying a majority of the staff had gone home early the day of the escape to celebrate Christmas.