San Francisco police this evening released the transcript of the 911 call from one of the survivors of the Christmas Day tiger attack at the San Francisco Zoo.

Dispatcher: They are on scene right now, but they have to stage until they are given permission to go inside.

Kulbir Dhaliwal: It’s a matter of life and death! How can they wait for permission to go in? (unintelligible)

Dispatcher: I understand that, but at the same time, we have to make sure the paramedics don’t get chewed out. Because, if the paramedics get hurt, then nobody is going to help you.

Kulbir: Get an ambulance in here.

Dispatcher: OK, the ambulance is staging. I need you to understand. That if the ambulance people, paramedics …

Kulbir: What do you mean? … My brother’s going to die out here!

Dispatcher: OK, calm down, all right?

Kulbir: It’s a matter of life and death … I’m not going to let him die like that.

Dispatcher: I’ll stay on the line with you. If the paramedics get hurt they cannot help your brother, so you need to calm down and …

Kulbir: Send more paramedics then!

Dispatcher: You are going to be the best help for your brother right now, so you need to calm down and help him until we can get there, sir, all right? So I’m going to stay on the line with you (redacted).

Kulbir: Can you fly a helicopter right here? Because I don’t see no f- ambulance here.

Dispatcher: OK, stay calm! You have to stay calm for your brother, all right?

Kulbir: Man, it does not take this long to get an ambulance out here.

There’s much more. This whole time, the frantic man was outside with the tiger nearby, his brother already bleeding from the head. He finally hangs up.

The accompanying article shows how zoo personnel initially discounted reports that a dangerous animal was on the loose. There’s 911 call transcripts of that too:

Dispatcher: Is he saying that he was bitten?

Zoo: He said it’s an adult male, we don’t know if he was on drugs.

Dispatcher: Is he saying, is the patient saying that he was bitten by an animal?

Zoo: He’s saying he was bitten by an animal, but there is no animal escaped, he could just be crazy.

Dispatcher: OK. (redacted)

Howe: (redacted) He’s saying he got attacked by a lion. But that’s …

(Zoo official Alan Feinberg heard over zoo radio)

Feinberg: That’s virtually impossible.

Meanwhile, San Jose police charged Paul Dhaliwal, the more seriously injured brother, on charges stemming from misbehavior in September when the 19-year-old got into a drunken scuffle with police. (See previous Tiger Beat entry on the rap sheet of the tiger’s victims.)

And finally, the zoo suffered another questionable incident yesterday when a zebra died.