SF Zoo's Siberian tiger, "Tony," dies
Mighty Tony will roar no more.
Tony the tiger, the gentle, dignified patriarch of the San Francisco Zoo's feline family since 1993, passed to the great scratching post in the sky Tuesday when zoo staff euthanized the elderly giant.
"He was such a handsome, charismatic animal," said zoo director Tanya Peterson. "We are all feeling a real sense of loss. I don't think I'll ever get used to it."
Tony, an endangered Siberian tiger, was 18 years, 3 months old, the second-oldest male Siberian tiger in North America and among only a few hundred in the world.
Like seniors everywhere, Tony was beginning to suffer the effects of old age: staring absently into space, stumbling from arthritis and sleeping most of the day.[
sound familiar, Dale? 
]
On March 29, San Francisco firefighters had to tranquilize and carry Tony out of the dry moat in his enclosure after he spent four nights there, unwilling or unable to negotiate the stairs.
Tuesday morning, Tony refused food, even his favorite treats like meatballs made from rabbit or chicken. He'd take a few steps and collapse or bump into the side of his enclosure, and he was breathing rapidly. He also appeared disoriented, not responding to his name or gestures by his keepers.
Last visit from friend
Zookeepers also noted he had urinated in his sleep and failed to clean himself, a clear indication he was in serious decline, the zoo's mammal curator, Ingrid Russell-White said.
"We knew this was coming, but it was heartbreaking," said Russell-White. "We all agreed it was time. It was in his best interest to not let him suffer."
Throughout the morning, Tony's friend, a 20-year-old Sumatran tiger named Padang, stood by the mesh barrier separating their enclosures and blew greetings at him, a tiger form of affection called chuffing.
After consulting with the veterinary staff and keepers, zoo directors decided Tony's reign on this planet had come to an end.
In the afternoon, about a dozen zoo staff gathered in Tony's enclosure, where the 400-pound cat was sleeping peacefully on his favorite mat, and injected him with first an anesthetic and then a euthanasia solution. Within minutes, the beloved cat was dead.
"He was just very quiet. He didn't respond at all. He was so peaceful we thought he had passed away on his own," Russell-White said.
Throughout Wednesday, visitors left cards and flowers at his enclosure. Teary-eyed zoo staff held a moment of silence in his honor, and Peterson laid a bouquet of blue flowers and a card that read, "The zoo is blue and misses you."
"My kids cried when I told them," said zoo member Belmonda Sarac, whose family "adopted" Tony through a zoo fundraiser in 2007. "We had all fallen in love with him. He was so huge, so poised, so calm."
Large but relaxed
Tony was born March 21, 1992, at Reid Park Zoo in Tucson and arrived in San Francisco on June 30, 1993. Despite being the largest tiger at the zoo, he was known for his relaxed, somewhat timid demeanor.
