[FEL-L] No Charges Filed In Zoo Tiger's Escape, Death-FL

[BigCatSimba at aol.com]

http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGBFM4X5JUE.html
 
TAMPA - Christopher Allen Lennon, a rookie zookeeper, finished feeding the 
aggressive 200-pound Sumatran tiger and walked toward another cage.
For some reason, Lennon turned around.
"I must have heard something," he wrote in a statement to investigators, 
released for the first time Tuesday. "I turned back around and saw a chunk of meat 
in the hall. The female's door was open. I turned around and she was in the 
other room just past the hay looking at me. I threw the gate shut to separate 
us and she turned calmly and walked out."
The escape occurred Aug. 22, when the tiger named Enshalla walked from her 
den at Lowry Park Zoo and entered a construction area. A zoo official shot and 
killed the rare carnivore as she tried to climb toward the park's public area.
An investigation showed that Lennon failed to lock a cage door. On Tuesday, 
prosecutors decided not to charge the 33-year-old zookeeper with a crime.
Pam Bondi, a spokeswoman for the Hillsborough County State Attorney's Office, 
said there was not enough evidence to demonstrate that Lennon acted with 
criminal intent.
Lennon could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Prosecutors released a 
written statement he provided to an investigator with the Florida Fish and Wildlife 
Conservation Commission. He had not been identified previously.
In the statement, Lennon wrote that he placed food in one of two dens used by 
Enshalla. He transferred her into the den with the food, then went to place 
food in a male tiger's den.
He turned the corner to check back on Enshalla.
"She was aggressive like she always is with food and jumped up on the gate," 
he wrote.
He started back toward the male tiger's cage to continue working, then turned 
and noticed the chunk of meat on the hallway floor.
Lennon secured himself in another animal exhibit and called "code one" over a 
radio, alerting zoo officials that a dangerous animal was loose.
He wrote in his statement that he stayed on the radio while he climbed to the 
top of a gate, keeping an eye on the tiger. Lennon watched as she walked into 
a construction area and was confronted by a response team.
A Fish and Wildlife report also released Tuesday confirmed earlier zoo 
statements that one of its veterinarians shot Enshalla with a tranquilizer dart. The 
dart agitated the tiger, and she began to scale an ivy-covered wall. Zoo 
President and Chief Executive Officer Lex Salisbury shot the tiger with a shotgun 
before she could escape into a public area.
The Fish and Wildlife report states that despite the unlatched cage, the 
escape could have been prevented had Lennon closed either of two other doors in 
the feeding area.
Fish and Wildlife Lt. Steve De Lacure said Tuesday that Enshalla walked out 
of her cage, then through a door that led to a hallway used by zookeepers. The 
animal also walked through a door that led to a former rhino exhibit, he said.
Zoo officials said the two doors might have prevented Enshalla from entering 
the construction area, but had the doors been closed, the tiger still would 
have been in an area off limits to animals.
De Lacure provided the results of his investigation to the state attorney's 
office, suggesting Lennon face a misdemeanor charge of unsafe handling of 
captive animals resulting in an escape.
Had Lennon been tried and convicted, he could have faced a $500 fine or up to 
60 days in jail.
De Lacure said he was not disappointed that charges were not filed.
"There was fault on his part," De Lacure said. "Whether there was criminal 
intent, no, there probably wasn't."
Zoo officials fired Lennon on Aug. 25. De Lacure said Lennon has returned to 
his native West Virginia.
Lennon had worked at Lowry Park for about a month and came highly recommended 
by a college and a previous employer, the Lubee Bat Conservatory in 
Gainesville, where he handled fruit bats. It is unclear whether he had experience 
handling tigers before being hired at Lowry.
Zoo spokeswoman Rachel Nelson said officials there are pleased prosecutors 
will not charge Lennon.
"We certainly agree with their findings," she said. "We have made it clear 
from the beginning that the incident was a very unfortunate human error."
Since Enshalla's escape and death, the zoo has instilled a buddy system where 
a second zookeeper double checks that gates are locked on all code-one 
animals, Nelson said.
Code-one animals include big cats, elephants and some primates.
De Lacure said the zoo cages are compliant with state code, but no security 
is foolproof.
"The buddy system isn't always going to prevent everything," he said, 
"especially if both people aren't paying attention."
Reporter Thomas W. Krause can be reached at (813) 259-7698 or 
tkrause at tampatrib.com.
 
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