Dallas Zoo faces Hefty Fine

[TexasStooge]

Dallas faces fine for gorilla's escape

DALLAS, Texas (The Dallas Morning News) - The U.S. Department of Agriculture has fined the city $10,000 for the March escape of Jabari, a 350-pound gorilla that leapt 14 feet over a habitat wall at the Dallas Zoo and attacked visitors, zoo officials said.

Officials said the civil penalty was outlined in a September letter to the city attorney's office.

Officials in the city attorney's office acknowledged that they had received a letter from the Agriculture Department and were "still in the process of reviewing it."

Police shot and killed Jabari, a 13-year-old western lowland gorilla, March 18 when he attacked three zoo patrons, including a toddler and his mother.

Zoo officials have insisted that their employees were not to blame for Jabari's escape. Since the gorilla's rampage, they have removed and trimmed trees near walls in the zoo's northern habitat and added electrified wire around the exhibit's perimeter. The southern and northern habitats will eventually have their walls raised.

Staff writer Terri Langford contributed to this report.