A Bolivian-born jaguar named Jorge that killed a Denver zookeeper was well-behaved as a young cat, but he had a twin brother who was so mean that his handlers named him Osama, a Bolivian zoo official said Monday.
Ashlee Pfaff, 27, died from a broken neck and other injuries after Jorge attacked her while she was inside an employee hallway that opened into his outdoor enclosure on Saturday, the coroner said. A zoo employee shot and killed Jorge when he approached emergency workers trying to save Pfaff.
Denver Zoo officials said the jaguar attacked Pfaff when she opened a door from a service area into his enclosure while the cat was still in the enclosure. They said they did not know why, because zoo policy forbids keepers and big cats from being in an enclosure together.
"We don't know if she was going in, and we never will," zoo spokeswoman Ana Bowie said. "Why that door was open and what she was doing, we do not know."
Jorge -- Spanish for George -- had been named after President Bush, said Dr. Margot Ugarteche, a veterinarian at the Santa Cruz Municipal Zoo of South American Fauna in Bolivia, which sent Jorge to the Denver Zoo.
"Osama was always the more dominant of the two," Ugarteche said. "He was always rough with George. That was the relationship we saw between them."
"Jorge wasn't bad, really," she said. "I don't know what could have happened. Perhaps because he was so well-behaved, the trainer (in Denver) thought she could trust him. But you never know with wild animals. Anything can happen at any moment."
Craig Piper, the zoo's chief operating officer, said investigators don't know what went wrong and why Pfaff ended with an open doorway between her and the cat. The training stresses that workers should keep a barrier between themselves and the animals, he said.
"The phrase we often us is 'know where your animals are,"' Piper said.
The jaguar had no history of unusual behavior in Denver, Denver Zoo spokeswoman Ana Bowie said.
Dr. Lynn Kramer, a veterinarian who heads the zoo's biological programs, said she was experienced and well-trained, and it is common practice for zoo employees to work alone. That, he said, could change as officials look for ways to improve operations.
"We're looking at all of our procedures," he said.
The zoo and Denver police have launched investigations. The U.S. Agriculture Department, which inspects zoos at least annually, also planned to investigate, spokesman Darby Holladay said, and zoo officials said the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration is also involved.
The Denver Zoo has said Jorge was about 6 years old, but Ugarteche said the brothers were born in 1996. Kramer said his birth date had not been documented and it is possible he is 10 years old. The cat's age would have likely had no effect on his behavior, and a necropsy showed the animal was healthy.
Jorge and Osama were captured by a family in the countryside of the tropical lowland state of Santa Cruz, in eastern Boliva, and were keeping them as pets until a local conservation group brought them to the zoo when they were 6 months old, Ugarteche said.
The pair did not have names until two or thee years ago, she said.
"We named him Jorge, like President George, the president of the United States, and the other one Osama, because he was the bad one of the two," she said.
The Denver Zoo obtained Jorge in March 2005. Ugarteche said the Santa Cruz zoo received various supplies in exchange, including computers and lab equipment.
"Jorge wasn't very big, but he's the one that qualified (to be shipped to Denver), because his attitude made him seem the better animal" for the trip, Ugarteche said.
She said Osama remains at the Santa Cruz zoo. She said news of Pfaff's death had saddened the staff there.
Pfaff had undergone regular safety training for the jaguar exhibit, shadowed veteran keepers and attended mandatory safety
meetings, officials said.
"She was an experienced animal keeper," Bowie said. "This wasn't like it was her first job working with cats."
Pfaff, a native of Sante Fe, N.M., graduated from New Mexico State University in 2002 with a degree in biology. She started work at the Denver Zoo in the fall of 2005.
Zoo officials said the were honoring her family's privacy and declined to say much about Pfaff's personality.
"Ashlee was a great zookeeper, she was dedicated to this institution, dedicated to her animals," Bowie said.
"I would describe her as passionate to come to work every day," Piper said. "We celebrate life every day. It's a very difficult time for us because Ashlee was a very dear friend and a colleague ... We're a close-knit family. We do this because we love animals and we want to protect them."
Kramer said zoo employees go through at least four "code red" drills a year, including one already this year. The "code red" designation refers to the escape of an animal that is capable of killing a human. He said the zoo has 16 employees trained in firearms, four responded to the alarm within minutes of the attack on Pfaff.
Bowie said Pfaff's death is the first fatality involving an animal at the zoo in modern times. She said there are account of a zookeeper being killed by a bear in the 1920s, and a zoo employee was injured, but not killed, by a leopard in the 1970s, she said.
The feline exhibit area where Jorge lived has been closed since the incident. Piper said he did not know when it would be reopened.
At the entrance to the zoo, friends and zoo visitors piled flowers and notes in her honor.
One letter read, "A void has been left that will never be filled, and I will think of you often."
A family member said Pfaff's parents, Norman and Janice Pfaff, were traveling to Denver from their home in New Mexico. A memorial service planned for Tuesday night at Highlands Lutheran Church in Denver.
Referencemyfoxcolorado
No comments:
Post a Comment