Twenty-two years before a tiger escaped its pen at the San Francisco Zoo and killed a man, John Ball Zoo was the scene of similar horror when a jaguar escaped its cage and fatally mauled a pregnant zookeeper.
Investigators in San Francisco today were trying to determine how a tiger escaped its enclosure, killing one visitor and mauling two others on Christmas. They planned a thorough sweep of the zoo grounds today to look for clues. The female Siberian tiger, which mauled a zookeeper almost one year earlier, was loose before being shot and killed by police. (Read the full story from The Associated Press)
In Grand Rapids, the fatal attack led to an extensive safety review at the zoo.
On Dec. 8, 1985, zookeeper Gayle Booth, 30, of Kent City, was making final rounds when she was attacked by a 180-pound male jaguar that apparently squeezed through a flawed doorway to gain entrance to a holding area used by workers.
Booth was discovered when a co-worker noticed the big cat roaming in the exhibit's holding area, which contained numerous cages where South American animals were kept for protection from winter weather.
Workers forced the animal into a storage area, and shot the jaguar twice with tranquilizer darts. A Grand Rapids police officer stood guard with a shotgun as Booth's body was removed.
An examination determined Booth died of a skull fracture and cuts to the head and neck.
Officials eventually transferred the jaguar and its mate to a wildlife preserve in California.
The jaguar was the second cat to escape a cage at the zoo that year. In July 1985, a security guard was slightly injured when a cougar escaped and swatted her in the face.