Opinion: It was Manuel Mollinedo’s tiger

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The grisly and continuing story of the tiger that escaped from its San Francisco Zoo enclosure on Christmas to kill a man and maul two others brings to news accounts a name familiar and praised in some Los Angeles circles: Manuel Mollinedo, the zoo’s director.

Mollinedo left his job as director of L.A.’s Department of Recreation and Parks in 2003, amid sharp budget cuts to his department, to take the San Francisco Zoo job. He previously was director of the Los Angeles Zoo from 1995 to 2002 and won high praise for his management there despite his lack of background in animal care or zoos. The job usually requires at least as much knowledge in the care and feeding of politicians and donors as it does oversight of exotic animals.

At the L.A. zoo, he oversaw improvements and expansions that helped stave off the loss of accreditation by the same organization that now is awaiting a report on the deadly tiger escape.

He grew up in Los Angeles and directed the parks department in Austin, Texas, before returning to L.A.

Mollinedo ran the L.A. Zoo in 2001 on the day that a Komodo dragon bit off a chunk of toe belonging to the San Francisco Chronicle’s executive editor Phil Bronstein. That’s a fact that may help keep the Chronicle’s attention on Mollinedo as the probe of the tiger attack continues.