San Francisco leaders are considering changes to the 15-year-old agreement that turned over control of the city's zoo to a nonprofit group, effectively relinquishing the city's direct oversight of an institution that at the time faced the loss of its accreditation because of conditions that one report described as "literally disgraceful."Mayor Gavin Newsom ordered the Recreation and Park Commission on Monday to hold a special public hearing into last month's attack by one of the zoo's tigers, which killed one visitor and injured two others. The hearing, Newsom said, would review the management agreement between the city and the San Francisco Zoological Society to "further investigate how this incident could have happened and how we can prevent future incidents."
Members of the city's Board of Supervisors said they will call today for hearings on zoo operations, and a Recreation and Park commissioner who sits on the committee overseeing the zoo said that body also will take a close look at the relationship between the city and the Zoological Society.
"This is a horrible, horrible incident that should not have happened," said David Lee, a Recreation and Park Commissioner on the Joint Zoo Committee, the city's principal zoo oversight body, which includes three members of the Zoological Society's board of directors.
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