Tiger euthanized at National Zoo

WASHINGTON (AP)-- A Sumatran tiger at the National Zoo was euthanized Monday.
Zoo veterinarians said the female tiger, Kerinci, suffered from a chronic neuromuscular condition that developed after the cat suffered a spinal cord injury in February 1997. The cat responded well to treatment with steroids for several years, but in recent weeks she was having an increasingly difficult time walking.
Kerinci was found as a cub in the wild in 1984. She was donated to the National Zoo by the Jakarta Zoo in Indonesia. As part of the captive breeding program for Sumatran tigers she provided seven cubs. A female tiger and her three male cubs born last May share her bloodline.
According to the National Zoo, there are now only about 500 Sumatran tigers living in the wild, and 200 in zoos. The National Zoo now has six tigers including the female and five males.