Advertisement President of Palm Beach Zoo gives new details on Stacey Konwiser's death Stacey Konwiser killed by Malayan tiger Share Shares Copy Link Copy

Andy Aiken, the president of the Palm Beach Zoo, gave a press conference Thursday where he gave details on the circumstances surrounding Stacey Konwiser’s death.Aiken says two maintenance men heard a scream coming from the Tiger Night House in the Tiger Falls exhibit, where one male tiger was enclosed the day Konwiser was fatally attacked by a Malayan tiger.The maintenance workers discovered Konwiser inside and radioed for help.Aiken says an incident commander arrived on scene and he and others decided to tranquilize the tiger rather than shoot it, which would kill it, for several reasons including protecting Konwiser.“In this instance the animal was within inches of Stacey's body, including her head and was prey guarding which is a protective position tigers will assume over prey in the wild with their ears pointed back,” Aiken said. “We evaluated and determined if we were to shoot at the animal, there was a chance we may hit Stacey.”Police records show it took rescue crews 17 minutes to reach Konwiser after the male Malayan tiger attacked her.Download app: iOS | AndroidParamedics with West Palm Beach Fire Rescue had to wait for a tranquilizer to take effect before they could reach her.Zoo officials say Konwiser broke protocol, which led to the fatal attack.Aiken says she was inside the tiger cage area, not the walkway area where keepers usually are.They had to shoot through a 2-by-3-foot chute covered with heavy wire mesh and were also afraid the shot might richochet or enrage the tiger and cause further harm.A tranquilizer usually makes the tiger run away and that’s what they did.He says if they could have shot and killed the tiger safely, they would have to save a human life.They say Stacey went in there even though she had placed a sign earlier on the cage saying animal access and they don’t know why she did it“One reason we do not know is because she did not radio the other keeper to say she was entered enclosure and state why,” Aiken said. That is normal procedure before entering any tiger enclosure…we may never know the answer to that question.”Aiken said they still do not know why Stacey entered the enclosure or whether she knew if the tiger was present.