Here's how the Sun reported it:
Hesperia Zoo gets a scare
Tiger escapes, sinks teeth into donkey
Jeff Horwitz, Staff Writer
San Bernardino County Sun
Article Launched:10/07/2006 12:00:00 AM PDT
HESPERIA - A tiger escaped its cage Friday afternoon and attacked a donkey before being sedated.
The incident took place at Hesperia Zoo, a home for exotic animals that can be rented out to film productions.
Before the tiger was sedated, sheriff's officials put the neighborhood on alert. A school bus in the area was instructed not to let any of the students onboard out, said Elizabeth Galarza, who lives near the zoo and whose son was on the bus.
"He was stuck on the bus for more than an hour," she said.
According to Steve Martarano, spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Game, the tiger escaped while new zoo employees were cleaning its cage.
The animal - named Safari, according to the zoo's Web site - panicked a nearby donkey, Martarano said.
When the donkey fled, the tiger's predatory instincts kicked in.
"Its front paws were declawed, but it bit the donkey in the neck," Martarano said.
A staff member fired a gun in the air, Martarano said, scaring the tiger off its prey. Another staff member was injured when an airgun blew up upon discharge, cutting the man's face.
Neither the injured staff member's name nor that of the donkey were known late Friday. Both were expected to recover, Martarano said.
It was ultimately a private veterinary technician who took the tiger down with tranquilizer darts, Martarano said.
The zoo is an unusual neighbor, , but has never caused problems in the past.
"I live two blocks from here, and I like the sounds at night," she said.
Although the escape "set off alarms," Martarano said, the zoo's exotic animal permits are in good standing.
Other recent wildlife escapes have had sadder endings.
Last year, Martarano said, the Fish and Game Department dealt with both a near-lethal chimpanzee attack near Bakersfield and the controversial shooting of an escaped Siberian tiger in Ventura County.
Roughly 350 sites in California have exotic-animal permits, Martarano said, for animals ranging from "ferrets on up."
