up next on a second look, christmas 2007. a tiger escapes from its enclosure at the san francisco zoo. the history of big cat escapes at the zoo. plus -- >> lions tend to explode as they fight. >> how this big cat riot changed one man's life and led

to the creation of a sanctuary in solano county. >> and when a mountain goes up in a tree it usually doesn't get this much attention unless it's a mountain lion in your neighborhood. earlier this month a lion attacked and killed an intern at a wildlife preserve east of fresno. it was reminiscent at an attack at the san francisco zoo on christmas day 2007 when a tiger escaped its enclosure and killed a young man from san jose. authorities released tapes of the 911 calls that came up from the zoo that day and of the chaos that surrounded the situation. ktvu's pria davis brought in this report in 2008. >> reporter: on christmas day, a 5-year-old siberian tiger

named tatiana escaped its enclosure. one man asked a zoo keeper for help but they don't seem to believe him. >> is the patient saying he had been bitten by an animal. >> he said he had been bitten by an animal but there's no animal escape. >> reporter: but five minutes later zoo employees realize the victim may be telling the truth. >> hello, hello. yeah, okay we have a code one they say they have a tiger out. >> reporter: another eight minutes passes and another dispatcher gets a call from one of the brothers. he said he made his first call for help 10 minutes earlier. >> the cops are already on the way. >> okay. >> i don't see anybody here. it's been 10 minutes i haven't seen anybody. >> but it was about to get much longer. >> get police over here. >> i understand it but at the same time we have to make sure the paramedics don't get chewed out. because if the paramedics get hurt nobody is going to get

help. >> reporter: so minutes later, police officers locate the tiger and shoot it and then move in to help the injured brothers. >> one of the things that struck me was an -- was the amount of time to get people to get out to help. we have a young man who had been mauled by a tiger. some of the zoo people and people on the phone are questioning whether they are telling the truth or not. >> one of the things the zoo is trying to do is to. to get to the bottom of what had happened that day. there had been numerous reports of taunting that may have occurred. we want to know what really happened. >> reporter: the san francisco police department honored the four officers who responded to the zoo after that tiger attack. ktvu's amber lee brought us their story in february 2009. >> reporter: the four police officers who confronted the escaped tiger that fateful evening received their medals in front of their proud families, friends and

colleagues. >> holy moly i can't believe it. >> reporter: it was more than a year ago christmas 2007 when police officers from the t era bel station responded for a call for help from the zoo shortly after 5:00 in the evening. officers said they were unfamiliar with the lay out of the zoo and darkness was fast approaching making the situation difficult to handle. >> when we first arrived on scene it was pretty chaotic. there was a lot going on. >> reporter: the officers led emergency crews into the zoo and found themselves face to face with the 242-pound tiger who had already fatally mauled a teenage boy. the animal was now endangered another young man so the officers distracted her and the tiger started to move toward them. >> i was pretty scared that was the moment where it was thank -- it was surreal but the danger was pretty apparent that it was coming toward us. >> reporter: initially the officers said they couldn't open fire at tatiana because

they were concerned they would hit the young man. but when the tiger focused her attention on officer uchida they said they had no choice. the other officers say they also opened fire at the tiger after she kept moving toward uchida. they said they didn't have enough time to think but acted on their training and instincts. >> i'm sorry that the tiger had to die and i'm sorry that the other young man had to die also but an instinct kicked in and we had to go do a job. >> reporter: the family of uchida says that they are guaranteed to tell his story. >> there's never a guarantee in this procession that they will come home. especially on christmas after i heard that happened but again happy to hear that my husband was fine. in the month after the

attack, the district attorney's office tried to find out why the tiger escaped its enclosure. rob roth brought us the details of the investigation. >> reporter: the tiger enclosure should have been escape proof but it wasn't. tatiana a siberian tiger breeched a wall mauling to death carlos suza jr. and attacking two brothers who were with him. >> he's a hero. he risked his life to save someone else. and i think that's a hero. >> reporter: according to court documents we obtained one of the brothers told the father of the teenager who died that they were standing on a railing outside of the tiger and began waving their arms then the tiger approached. the brothers were drinking and smoking marijuana earlier in the day. the city have questioned whether the victims were partially responsible for the attack. >> there could be actions by

the brothers or anybody else that lowers any liability from the cities perspective. >> i defie people that tell me that there aren't 17-year-olds that drink beer and use a little bit of marijuana. so does that mean because he did that, that that's open season on him at the zoo. so even if that's true, that doesn't let the city advocate. while the two brothers deny taunting the brother, the report concludes they probably did. >> reporter: christmas day 2007 a tiger named tatiana escaped from his enclosure and fatally mauled carlos suza jr. and then attacked and injured his two friends. brothers paul and daliwal. documents obtained by the associated press quote a

federal investigator saying the tiger had probably been provoked. >> it confirms what it had said all along. and from the beginning he said it was not the enclosure that was inadequate but the actions of three visitors he claims led to the escape. >> there were claw marks deep into the cement that the investigators could see. that was a sign of how enraged they made that poor animal. >> a tiger is an animal. who knows why they do what they do. >> reporter: michael cardoza is the attorney of the teenager killed by tatiana. he calls the allegations of taunting a -- the zoo faced a small fine. the tiger exhibit has since been redesigned with higher walls to prevent future escapes. >> it's amazing to me that a lot of people were very quick

to blame the teenagers that were there instead of facing up and saying you know what, that tiger should have never gotten out of that cage. >> still to come on a second look. it was not the first time that tiger had attacked someone at the san francisco zoo. what happened just a year earlier. and a bit later he found himself in the middle of a big cat riot at marine world. how it changed his life. please.

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tonight we're taking a second look at christmas day 2007 when a tiger escaped its enclosure at the san francisco zoo and killed a teenager. it was not the first time that tiger tatiana has gone after a person. a year earlier tatiana badly mauled the arm of a zoo keeper who was feeding her. here is rene kemp's report from december 2006. >> she was grabbed apparently by the claws on both arms. she suffered some lacerations. i do not know the extent of those injuries at the time. she is in surgery at the moment and we're all praying for her right now. she had been with the zoo since 1997 and was highly trained and experienced. this is video that shows exactly what the zoo's indoor feeding area looks like. animals remain caged while the handler places food through the

small opening seen here. zoo officials say today the handler had finished feeding tatiana the 200-pound cat when somehow the animal mauled her right through the bars. >> i would hesitate to call this an actual attack. this could have been nothing more than actual play. big cats, big claws, play can be rough. >> reporter: she was taken to san francisco general hospital reportedly suffering serious wounds to both arms. the attack left dozens of witnesses including some children stunned and horrified. >> it was just a commotion and a lot of people started yelling and leaving. and i turned and i could see that one of the trainers one of the lions -- i assume her hand was too close and one of the lions must have grabbed her hand. at that point i just wanted to have my kids get out. >> we heard over the radio someone say, someone was gushing blood and they had welcome a missing hand.

>> reporter: today zoo officials called a code one, that sent zoo workers quickly to the scene. the quick response may have saved the victim's life but the scramble left zoo visitors shaken. >> we were afraid that there was an animal lose. originally. >> then when we heard that we were concerned about the person hurt but at least there was no animal lose. >> reporter: tatiana has been housed in the zoo for a year. zoo officials say the animal has no history of aggressive behavior and they plan to put her right back on public display. >> shortly after tatiana the tiger escaped from her enclosure at the san francisco zoo, pria david talked to a former zoo keeper who said preventing her escape may have been as simple as putting water in the mote surrounding her enclosure. here's pria's report from 2007. >> reporter: john alvarez says

for much of his time at the zoo he worked with apes but for many years he worked with big cats. >> how was it working with cats? >> i loved it. i hated to leave the zoo, i loved it. >> reporter: and alvarez still lives with animals. there was a tiger named mike who somehow scaled the enclosure wall just like tatiana may have done. >> we walked around checking the mote after lunch which we always did. we saw him up on the bushy area right inside the handrailing. we hollered at him and he jumped back down. >> reporter: alvarez says they filled the mote with about 2 feet of water and mike never escaped again. >> that was always necessary. he couldn't jump out then. he couldn't get perched. >> the water kept mike from having enough traction and woul tatiana in her pen too even

though walls are lower than regulation height. the walls were built as a wpa project. although some zoos now have high electrified fences for big cats the san francisco zoo still only has 12-foot high walls. six years ago, ktvu spoke with a different former big cat keeper here who told us about yet another tiger escape. >> a tiger leaned against a wall, the wall fell open. a tiger walked out and we followed him all around the zoo but we didn't bother him. he walked on back. he went back in where he walked out of. layed down and went to sleep. >> after the december 2007 tiger escape both the san francisco and oakland zoo changed their big cat enclosures to make them more secure. when we come back on a second look, big cats misbehaving. how this outbreak of violence changed this trainer's life and

led him in a new direction running a sanctuary for the animals he once trained. cat up a tree. nothing unusual unless that cat is a mountain lion. well, well, well.

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tonight on a second look when big cats turn violent. it happened in marin world. and a trainer named john whitfield was right in the middle of it. john watson told us what happened and how it changed whitfield's life. this tranquilsetting, these rolling hills are not the place it resembles. cats of the jungle, cats of the plains and it lays on bay area

land. ron whitfield has been an animal trainer for most of his adult life. and the catastrophic event is what led him to accomplish this idealish place. the old marine world africa usa in redwood city. when the fight broke out the big cats were in the middle of preserving the pyramid cove. what happened to make his highly trained cats go back to their wild wild ways? >> i had a frisky tiger. and his name was tycoon and he lived up to his name. periodically he would get real frisky. and sometimes he would take what we call a cheap shot. >> reporter: typhoon took his cheap shot all right. hind leg of an old lion named

bo. a mistake in the wild. a real mistake in the cage. why did he stay in the cage. somewhere -- the only way you can break up a fight is stay between the adversaries. stand in between and push one out. >> reporter: when you see him handling the big cats you have to ask him another question why didn't they turn and attack him. >> i worked with the cats. you live with them 24 hours a day almost seven days a week. so they really weren't upset with me at all. my job was to stop them from going after another cat and i used a couple of poles to get in their face and i had to reprimand them. >> reporter: at the time ron had worked with the big cats

for a dozen years most of them were any where from nine to 12 years old. the fight was a turning point for ron and for the cats. even though there were no serious wounds inflicted in the feline ruckus and they were back in the ring a couple of hours later things would never be the same. >> i knew it was the beginning of the end of working at training cats. once they got into doing that they knew they could do it. i thought it was time to retire. >> reporter: which was the first step to starting the retirement home for big cats. since 1985 this has been a safe haven for cats all around the world a culmination of a lifelong love affair with the big cat. >> when we come back on a second look a mountain lion ends up leading a big chase in a sacramento county courthouse. plus the big cat that tried to get into a casino in reno and

what happened next.

over the years as homes have moved into areas that used to be rural, mountain lions show up at homes. it happened a few years ago and burns hawkins has the story. >> reporter: residents say that dogs are always running cats up trees. this time it was a big cat. >> all we could see was the hindquarters and the tail. it was 2-1/2 feet long. we knew it was not a regular cat. we knew it was a bob lion.

>> reporter: her hunt was over. deputy, fish and game, media and neighbors were all looking at her. >> she didn't seem to want to move very much. >> reporter: fish and game shot her with a tranquilizer to calm things down. instead it brought the cat down, and the chase was on. >> it came down the tree and cut off into somebody elses backyard. >> you weren't chasing it at that time. >> no but all the media were. >> reporter: the mountain lion finally crawled under a house trailing hoping everyone would just go away.

>> and it's still there. >> raising it a little bit. he's going down. >> reporter: fish and game fished her out. groggy but still annoyed. the cat wore an electronic electronic collar. she had apparently been a guest of fish and game before. >> we put radio collars on her so we could monitor their movements. >> reporter: wardens think the cat may have wandered down from placerville along fulsome lake and the american river. no one was injured but expect for an unscheduled cat nap, no one inconvenienced. by noon the neighborhood was back to normal. the cat is still sleeping it off and on the way back up the hill. and neighbors say finally

there's something to put in their newsletter. >> someone spotted a big cat trying to enter a casino in the city of reno. this is a picture of the officer after they shot her with a tranquilizer gun. this came after people saw it trying to enter harrah's casino. wardens found it hiding under a stage. >> it was dangerous because of where it was. it wasn't dangerous because of the behavior it was displaying. >> reporter: they released him the next day in the carson range above tahoe's east shore after it woke from those tranquilizers. >> that's it for this week's second look. i'm julie haener, thank you for watching.