Samantha Kudeweh, a senior keeper at Hamilton Zoo, was killed by a male tiger named Oz while working alone in his enclosure. Samantha had designed safety procedures that included self-closing gates separating the tigers and their dens from keepers, but on the day of the incident she did not follow the rules and left gates open without knowing where Oz was located. Had she been aware of Oz's location, her behavior may have been different and her life could have been saved. Knowing where tigers are located is essential for applying proper safety controls.

1. WHERE IS YOUR TIGER?
Few people have todeal withaTigerat work.Samanthadid.
While herpassionwasworkingwithRhinos,feedingthe bigcats
was one of her manytasks as a KeeperatHamiltonZoo.
SamanthaKudeweh,DiedonaSundaymorning inSeptember
2015 whena male TigercalledOZ( Hebrew forStrength) was
able to enterthe enclosure whereshe wasworkingalone.
Unaware of hispresence Samanthawascuttingbambooforthe
RedPandas. Oz struck herfrom behindwithasingle blow that
endedherlife.
Samanthawas a seniormemberof staff andhighlyexperienced
inthistype of work. In fact she designedthe safetysystemand
proceduresforworkingwiththe Tigers. The systemincludeda
seriesof well placedself closinggatesseparating the tigers,their
respective densandthe keeper.The systemworkedwell fromits
inceptionrightupuntil itwentwrong andbroughtabout her
death.
While Ozwas andis a vital part of an International breeding
program forSumatran Tigershe has neverbeeninhimself anice
or happybeast. He is notdescribedbythose whoknow himwith
any fondness.
There wasneverany misunderstandingaboutthe nature of the
beastsat HamiltonZoothat couldif able attack and kill ahuman.
There are manyof themincludingAfricanWildDogsand
Chimpanzees. The riskshave longbeenidentifiedandcontrols
to preventexposuresetandembedded. The threatisreal,
presentandobvioustoall.
Yet onthat SundaymorningSamanthadidn’tfollow the rulesshe
herself hadputinplace. She didnot know where OZwas,she
had notseenhimand assumedhe wasinhisden.Gates were
leftopenasshe worked. It hadbeena difficultmorningasshe
was incharge of the zoo. It had hailedandshe hadno doubt
beenreceivingradio callsseekingadvice astowhatto do with
the respective animalsexposedtothe weather.Allatthe same
time she wasfeedingthe Tigers.
The investigationfocusedonthe self closing gate systemsbut
was unable toarrive at any reasonor anyevidence thatmight
have explainedwhySamhadleftthe gatesopen. That initself
was inexplicable. Itsnotimportanthere tofocuson the gate
system. Ourpurpose here isto understandthathadshe known
where the Tigerwasher behaviormayhave beendifferent,the
gatesclosedcorrectly,herlife saved. Onlybyknowingwhere
the Tigeris can the controlsthenbe appliedcorrectly.
Do you know where your Tiger is where you work?
PREVIOUS INCIDENT
It's not the first time a keeper has had
a potentiallylethal encounter with a
tiger at Hamilton Zoo.
In 2013 a keeper walked 10 meters
into an enclosure she thoughtwas
empty before finding herselfalone
with a five-year-old female tiger.
When the tigress spotted the keeper
she ran "playfully" up to the keeper
and swatted her gumboots,before the
keeper,who didn'tpanic, returned to
the keeper gate and exited the
enclosure.
At the time the Zoo said in a
statementthata gate had mistakenly
been left open.