San Diego Zoo is now the first zoo in America to be viewable through Google's online street-view feature.  Animal lovers can see many of their favorites, including tigers, giraffes and elephants, simply by the click of a mouse (no pun intended). 

In an interesting way, this new initiative makes the already-safe San Diego Zoo even safer, allowing for viewing of animals from the safe distance of one's home.  San Diego Zoo, one of the most frequented zoo's in the world, has operated since 1922 without notable incident, despite the fact that it features many dangerous animals.  San Diego Zoo's tigers and lions, however, are held in cages behind thick glass.

Unfortunately for San Francisco Zoo, the same cannot be said.  On Christmas Day 2007, three young men were attacked, one fatally, by Tatiana, a tigress that scaled a wall at the San Francisco Zoo.  San Jose brothers Kulbir Dhaliwal, 23 and Paul Dhaliwal, 19, survived the attack, but their friend, Carlos Sousa, 17, was mauled to death.  The tiger attack subsequently led to a bitter legal battle, with actions against the zoo for personal injury, wrongful death and defamation.