The Honolulu Zoo’s endangered Sumatran tiger Berani was euthanized Monday.
Zoo officials said in a press release Tuesday that the decision to put down the tiger was made by veterinary staff and animal keepers.
Berani, who would have turned 18 on Sept. 4, was born at Arizona’s Phoenix Zoo in 1999 and was moved to Honolulu in November 2005.
According to the zoo, there are fewer than 500 Sumatran tigers in existence, and about 200 of them live in zoos as part of a worldwide conservation effort. Officials said the life expectancy of Sumatran tigers at a zoo is 18.4 years, while only about 12 years in the wild.
Last year the Honolulu Zoo’s Djelita died after holding the Guinness World Record as the oldest living tiger in captivity at more than 25 years old.
Chrissie, a female Sumatran tiger, remains at the zoo.
Arbitration starts in HPD termination case
Arbitration began Tuesday in the wrongful termination case of ex-Honolulu police Sgt. Darren Cachola.
Cachola is the police sergeant who was caught on a Sept. 8, 2014, surveillance video apparently punching his girlfriend at Kuni’s Restaurant and Lounge in Waipahu.
The girlfriend insisted it was horseplay, and a grand jury failed to indict Cachola.
A television news report Tuesday said Cachola “is expected to be paid for more than two years of back pay and other lost benefits,” and “sources say that amount will be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
Vlad Devens, one of the attorneys for the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers union, which represents Cachola, said, “That is an absolutely false statement.”
He declined to elaborate.
