The Hamilton City Council will bring in an external auditors to review procedures at Hamilton Zoo after a keeper was killed by a tiger last month.
It has also today admitted that a seperate incident in 2013 was a "containment issue" but ruled out any containment issues in last month's incident.
Following a Hamilton News investigation into the 2013 incident at Hamilton Zoo, where a keeper had a near-miss with a tiger, council chief executive Richard Briggs today said the organisation was planning an independent external review.
"We think that's appropriate to do so given recent events," Mr Briggs said. "That won't just be around the tiger enclosures. I've asked for that review to be across the entire zoo."
Hamilton Zoo keeper Samantha Kudeweh was killed by a male tiger called Oz in the main display enclosure on September 20. Investigations into that are being carried out by Worksafe NZ, the Ministry for Primary Industries and police.
The Hamilton News investigation revealed the path taken by tigress Sali in the 2013 incident as she made her way into the main tiger display enclosure where the keeper was working was through an area fenced only by a non-electrified weed mat-clad 1.8m fence. Had the tiger jumped the fence, it would have been in the public area of the zoo.
It is well documented that tigers can jump up to 4 metres.
The Hamilton City Council cancelled a scheduled interview with Hamilton News earlier this week and did not respond to written questions put to them, saying only that it had taken legal advice not to speak to media about the 2013 incident any further. However, following publication of today's report, Mr Briggs contacted the newspaper and asked to meet.
In an interview this morning, he said: "You're right in your coverage that it was a potential containment issue. It was different to 2015. There was no containment issue in 2015.
"You mentioned the 1.8m fence in your coverage. That was relevant for 2013 so you're right, there was a potential issue there. We're not disputing that, however, for 2015 the 1.8m fence wasn't a relevant factor."
In a leaked copy of zoo director Stephen Standley's report into the earlier incident, replacing the 1.8m fence with a "fully tiger-proof" 5m fence was discussed. That never happened and Mr Briggs said "the need for a 5m fence was mitigated by a steel gate which is kept locked".
When questioned if that was adequate given it allows for human error in not locking the gate, he said the external review would look at whether it should be replaced by a 5m fence.
"The feedback I've been getting from various experts is that processes and procedures are adequate, including the steel gate which stops any ability for the tiger to get into the area surrounded by the 1.8m fence but I am going to ask that specific question.
"I want to make sure we're doing everything we can to be best practice as possible. I don't have any reason to think we're not but that's the reason we do these reviews is to test [if we are]."
While Mr Briggs said he couldn't speak about some details of the investigations that are underway in case that compromised them, he was able to say that the incident that saw Kudeweh mauled by male tiger Oz involved cat doors - guillotine gates that operate on a counter-weight pulley system. The 2013 incident involved the tiger walking through three open personnel gates.
"In the 2015 incident there were no tigers that either weren't in their secure dens or, in the case of Oz, he was always in the 5m surrounded area. He couldn't get into any area that either wasn't the contained dens or the main tiger display enclosure."
Mr Briggs said he welcomed Worksafe extending their investigation to cover the 2013 incident.
"To me, it's important that we get as much information out of this process as possible. We take the responsibilities of health and safety across all of council very seriously and no less at the zoo. ... the safety and well being of the public, the animals and the zoo staff are paramount and at no time have they been put at risk."
Mr Briggs refuted the suggestion the zoo is unsafe.
- By Danielle Nicholson of the Hamilton News
