Tiger Attacks - There's A Lot More Tigers Out There: Is Stupid an Assumption of the Risk?

The Christmas Day tragedy at the San Francisco Zoo is getting curiouser and curiouser: it's now being reported that the father of deceased boy Carlos Sousa, Jr., called one of the two survivors to ask where his son was at a time pretty contemporaneously to the attacks, and they told him that they hadn't seen Carlos. And, they're not being cooperative with authorities. Hmmmm. Wonder why.

Tiger experts are looking at the known actions of Tatiana to report what they reveal - and they are suggesting that something unusual was going on near her confined area. Whether or not that involved taunting the tiger or not, no one is saying. What remains clear is that the area is still an active crime scene.

It's getting to be more and more like an episode of CSI Miami.

Meanwhile, here in Texas, we're maybe a bit more comfortable (jaded? less shocked?) about tigers in the news. For example, just today the dead body of a tiger similar to Tatiana was discovered by the side of IH35 near Dallas. Declawed, with a collar and a bullet to the head.

And, this past July, the San Antonio Zoo had an experienced handler miraculously escape death as another Sumatran tiger mauled him in an non-public area. The zookeeper was pulled from the tiger as the animal was trying to haul him into the cat's lair by his head. (The zookeeper survived.)

But these two stories are just the beginning.

Private Zoos

In 2005, animal rescue authorities estimated that private zoos across the US held as many as 20,000 big cats. Yes, that is 20,000 - while today's news reports are stating that there are less than 1000 Sumatran tigers alive today in captivity.

National Geographic estimates that for every tiger in a zoo, there are ten (10) more in private ownership.

Canned Hunts

Here in Texas, it's known that certain Texas ranches actually buy tigers (and lions and other big cats) just so Big Bwana Wannabes can come down here and go on a "hunt" and shoot the cats down. (Presumably, they are then stuffed and FedEx'd back for the Bwana's Office Ego Wall.)

Here's a synopsis of these Big White Hunters in action, in an article written by Ted Williams for Audubon magazine and quoted by Satya:

“In fact,” writes Williams, “before being ‘harvested,’ African lions raised as pets would amble over and lick your hands.” Williams tells of one hunter who had paid $10,500 to kill a leopard, a cougar and a Bengal Tiger. Unfortunately, Williams continues, “before the tiger left its cage, [the hunter] fainted and had to be taken back to the ranch to be revived.” Williams says that tigers, leopards, cougars and jaguars are often fed chicken to make them less aggressive just before they are to be shot. Some of them become reluctant to leave their cages, so are shot while still in them."

Tigers as Status Symbols

It's also known here in South Texas that owning big cats is a status symbol for those involved in the drug trade. Tigers for pets are common here and in Mexico. I suppose they make good watchdogs, too - if you're involved in illegal activity, having it known that you keep a tiger around might be considered savvy.

Tigers Roaming Wild in Rural Texas

It's also known here in Texas that there are tigers roaming out in the wild. One example: the tiger cub spotted near the Saline River back in 1999. Another: the tiger roaming around Atascosa County (that's next to San Antonio) in 2005. (No news reports that either was caught or killed, or whether that cub had a mother out there with it.)

My Two Cents Worth

Legally, I'm sure that the San Francisco Zoo is going to be sued for the Christmas Day incident - surely there will be a Wrongful Death case brought by the family of Carlos Sousa, and probably personal injury suits by the two surviving brothers. And, even if they did taunt the cat, they'll urge that it doesn't matter: the cat was inherently dangerous, and the Zoo had a black-letter duty to protect the public regardless of the public's culpability.

However, what all these different stories about tigers tells me -- canned hunts, private zoos, pets -- is that humans simply do not respect these preditors for what they are: magnificent beasts designed to kill. And there may be a valid legal defense in that, if those boys did tease Tatiana on that fateful day.

Stupid is stupid, and I'm voting that if that tiger jumped the fence without provocation, then the zoo must pay. However, the right lawyer and the right jury, and those boys jerking around with that beautiful danger, and the zoo just might not be found liable.

Be that unbelievably dumb, and maybe you've assumed the risk.

Did Drew Peterson Read This Forum Post?

Over the weekend, a friend and I were discussing Stacy Peterson's disappearance and how consistently jovial Drew Peterson appears to be. My friend, who practices a lot of criminal law, pointed out that he had an aura of "I know something you don't know," which she had seen in several of her clients, over the years. Usually, they did know something you didn't know, it turned out.

So, what with all this searching going on - by everyone except the Drew Peterson family - I began to wonder how hard it would be to learn about disposing of a body. Other than reading through the murder mystery section of the bookstore, or watching a CSI marathon.

I went to the web this morning, and googled the phrase, "how to get rid of a body," and in the second search result, found this forum entry:

When I took analytic chemistry, my instructor had a bottle of what he called "Jack's Magic Solution" which we used for cleaning the deposited crap out of glass vacuum filters. I believe it was a mixture of sulfuric acid, nitric acid, and potassium permanganate. (I don't know in what molar ratios, sorry murderers) He implied that if one were to dump a body into a plastic barrel and fill it with the stuff, the entire corpse would be able to wash down the gutter in liquid form.

Gave me shivers when I read that mention of a plastic barrel ....

Princess Diana Inquest - Evidence and Transcripts Online: Amazing Reading

The British Coroner's Office has placed all its hearing transcripts as well as its evidence online, for all the world to see and read, and follow along with the proceedings. It's an amazing site for both lawyers and laymen -- and a savvy counter to any future argument of cover-up or Kangaroo Court proceedings.

Of course, there is a lot to debate on the privacy issues arising out of what you'll find over at the official British Inquest site -- especially when you stop to ponder if Princess Diana ever thought you'd be reading her handwritten thank you notes to Dodi (her handwriting is very hard to read, so they've also got typewritten versions) or if Diana would be bothered to see the number of security cameras monitoring the movements of everyone in the Ritz that night.

There's just so much there, and it's still going on - each day's events are promptly added, and the proceeding begin again tomorrow morning. It's fascinating.

For example, it contains Fergie's Statement to the Inquest, which was read into the record on the afternoon of December 13, 2007. Sarah Ferguson reports that she had not seen, nor spoken with, Diana for a full two years before Diana's death. Curious by its absence is Fergie's outright denial of any fear for the life of herself or her daughters as she merely dismisses the existence of communications with Diana as well as any correspondence voicing these concerns to the Queen.

Really makes you wonder why Fergie didn't appear at the Inquest, to give testimony instead of sending a statement to be read.

There's also Dodi's ex-girlfriend's testimony that in July, she was living in a house in Malibu expecting to marry Dodi the next month, and suddenly she's booted out of the home by Mohammed Al Fayed with a girlfriend telling her to check the papers, where Dodi and Diana's infamous kissing photo has appeared.

This stuff would be addictive, even without the Writer's Strike.

There are also voluminous visuals to be studied, should you chose to do so. Maps of the route, maps of the nearest hospitals to the wreck site, maps of where Diana and Dodi went that day, all appear online.

There's information on the ring and the jewelry stores, and lots of investigation into the day's activities of Henri Paul.

And, in between all this stuff - so far - are lots of holes filled with lots of questions. Hopefully, as the proceedings progress, they'll get filled in.

Dog the Bounty Hunter - The Latest News

Here it is, Christmas time and the Writers' Strike doesn't look like it's going away anytime soon which is a big, big boost for reality TV ....

So what's happening over at A&E, where Dog the Bounty Hunter was its biggest draw before The Scandal and before The Strike?

1. Well, today saw a press release from LA non-profit group BOND (Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny) notifying the public that this Saturday, Dec. 15th, BOND will be hosting a book signing for Dog's autobiography along with a Christmas toy give-away for kids. Dog will be there - don't know about the rest of the family. And, it's being reported that BOND is an African-American organization.

2. On December 6th, a petition was forwarded to A&E to restore the show with Death by 1000 Papercuts reporting at least 14 other Bring Dog Back petitions in process, or already forwarded to the network.

3. Baby Lyssa has her own MySpace page, it just went up today (December 10).

4. There was an online push for fans to send pineapples (fresh, canned, dried, anything pineapple) to A&E in support of Dog. No idea how success this Pineapple Push has been -- but the A&E address is here if you're interested.

5. There's a Rally for the Dog in front of A&E's headquarters in NYC on December 13th. Fans are urged to attend -- and I've read that fans who cannot travel to the Big Apple are planning on telephoning A&E that day, voicing their support.

6. Bobby Brown, the Colorado bounty hunter seen several times on the DBH show, has issued his online statement of support for the Dog.

7. Dog the Bounty Hunter has a new website. A&E's logo is not displayed there; instead, it's "the Dog Network."

8. A&E continues to provide a Dog the Bounty Hunter page at its network site. However, it doesn't appear to be updated often -- the "news" sections reports only that:

"[i]n evaluating the circumstances of the last few days, A&E has decided to take Dog The Bounty Hunter off the network's schedule for the foreseeable future. We hope that Mr. Chapman continues the healing process that he has begun."

That's not news.

9. Dog's autobiography is getting 4.5 out of 5 stars as an overall review at Amazon.Com, and it's ranking 2540 in books.

Roundup: Did Drew Peterson Kill Stacy Peterson? 20 Things We Know Today

Did Drew Peterson kill Stacy Peterson? Here's 20 Things We Know Today:

1. Last night, police executed their 3d search warrant, seizing Drew Peterson's vehicles - a GMC Denali and a Pontiac Grand Prix.

2. Peterson's lawyer tells the media that the warrant is searching for items that "may have been utilized in commission of the offense of first-degree murder or the concealment of a homicidal death...." and for 'trace elements of several materials, including blue plastic.'

3. FoxNews is reporting that the nearby canal area has been closed off for 24 hours, starting on Tuesday, December 4th, to free the area for divers to search.

4. Drew Peterson has not been named as a suspect in Stacy Peterson's death according to the Associated Press. Then again, some reports say that he has been named a suspect - like CBSNews.Com.

5. A neighbor reported to FoxNews that they saw Drew Peterson and another man loading a barrel "big enough to put someone in" into Peterson's SUV. He described the barrel as blue and with a 35 to 55 gallon capacity.

6. Two Illinois truckers claim that two men, one believed to be Drew Peterson, came up to them at a Bolingbrook truck stop on October 29th, at around 3:30 am. They were asked to transport a package to an undisclosed location, where the two middle-aged men would then purportedly pick up the package. The truckers declined the invitation. Drew Peterson denies any knowledge of this through his attorney, who says this story just doesn't make good sense.

7. A nonprofit search group has been asked by authorities to search for a blue barrel.

8. Thomas Morphey, Drew Peterson's stepbrother tried to commit suicide last month. Morphey's sister reported last Friday that her brother is recovering, that Thomas helped Drew Peterson load a large container into the Denali, and that he fears he may have innocently helped with the disposal of Stacy's body. She says that Thomas will be assisting authorities.

9. Peterson's lawyer denies that Drew Peterson used police databases to search for information about family and friends - including a man with whom Stacy traded 'sexually suggestive text messages.'

10. Body language experts opine that Drew Peterson doesn't behave like a man whose wife has left him for another man.

11. The man exchanging the "suggestive text messages" has come forward: he is Scott Rossetto, whose brother briefly dated Stacy in 2001. He denies that he was having an affair with Stacy, that the emails were solely a flirtation, but that a husband could misconstrue them.

12. Neither Drew Peterson nor members of his family have joined in the search for Stacy Peterson.

13. Drew Peterson began a relationship with Stacy Peterson while he was still married to his third wife, Kathleen Savio.

14. Kathleen Savio died within a year of Drew's divorcing her and marrying Stacy. She was discovered in a waterless bathtub, hair wet and fingers wrinkled, with severe head trauma. The death was ruled accidental.

15. A grand jury presides over both the missing persons investigation of Stacy and the potential homicide investigation of Kathleen.

16. Letters have been sent to both the Peterson family and Stacy's family claiming to have seen a pregnant Stacy with a man. Sightings have been in Florida and in Illinois.

17. Drew Peterson was 30 years older than his bride on their wedding day, and held their 1 year old son in his arms at the ceremony (photo here).

18. Drew met Stacy when she worked as a night desk clerk at a hotel that he routinely checked out as part of his job as a night commander on the Bollingbrook Police Department.

19. Stacy's sister reports that Stacy called her on Friday (she disappeared on Sunday) to say that "if anything happens to me, I fear for my life," because Stacy had decided to divorce Drew.

20. Stacy's daughter with Drew is 2 years old. Her name is Lacy. Lacy Peterson.

For more information: www.findstacypeterson.com.

Blindspot: Fred Goldman Sues The Pirate Bay

On Thursday, in a Los Angeles County Superior Court, Fred Goldman sued The Pirate Bay for making If I Did It available for free on its website.

Yes, that Fred Goldman. Yes, that Pirate Bay.

Fred, Fred, Fred. Not only does a California court not have this kind of jurisdiction, but The Pirate Bay isn't new to the game. Listen. Listen closely, now. Can't you hear those Swedes snickering over there, I know I can.

For our reading enjoyment, The Pirate Bay routinely posts its responses to these sorts of actions, taking obvious great pleasure in replying to the likes of Apple, Microsoft, DreamWorks, SEGA, Warner Brothers, etc. They are particularly fond of referencing "retractable batons" ....

You've filed a lawsuit that you can't win, Fred, and you've not only given TPB free advertising thru the media coverage of your lawsuit (they've got free books online, too!) but you've made your critics aware that your profits from the book include advertising dollars in the hundreds of thousands.

Fred, Fred, Fred.