Animal welfare proponents will be joined at City Hall this morning by a handful of former zoo curators calling for an overhaul of the San Francisco Zoo.

In the wake of the fatal tiger mauling of a zoo visitor on Christmas Day, the Marin County-based group In Defense of Animals is asking the San Francisco Board of Supervisors for hearings on “inhumane conditions at the zoo.”

The group claims the San Francisco Zoo is outdated and fails to incorporate proper, modern animal welfare practices into its exhibits.

The group is calling for the zoo to be transformed into an “animal-focused, rescue zoo.”

Scheduled to speak at the 11:15 a.m. news conference are former curators from the Melbourne Zoo, the Los Angeles Zoo and Woburn Safari Park in England.

— Bay City News