The San Francisco Zoo, victim of alcoholic financial abuse
Co-dependents of the month:
The San Francisco Zoo, which settled a lawsuit with two brothers who survived the Christmas Day 2007 tiger attack after they and their friend Carlos Sousa, Jr. taunted the tiger, reported in the January-February 2008 TAR. Carlos was killed, but Paul and Kulbir Dhaliwal, in whose car an empty bottle of vodka was found after the attack, are said to have raked in a cool $900,000. “Other” escapades, reported in the September-October 2008 issue of TAR, included several counts of felony shoplifting and imprisonment for violation of probation involving a high-speed chase for Paul and public drunkenness and resisting arrest for Kulbir. Most lotto winners run through their take within a few years; the addictionologist in me predicts these lawsuit lottery winners should fare no differently.
Note to family, friends and fans of the above: the benefit of the doubt is given by assuming alcoholism (they are either idiots and fundamentally rotten, or they are alcoholic/other drug addicts—which would explain the misbehaviors). If alcoholic, there is zero chance that behaviors, in the long run, will improve without sobriety. An essential prerequisite to sobriety is the cessation of enabling, allowing pain and crises to build. Thus far, many have done everything they can to protect the addict from the requisite pain, making these news events possible. The cure for alcoholism, consequential bad behaviors and, ultimately, tragedy, is simple: stop protecting the addict from the logical consequences of misbehaviors and, where possible, proactively intervene.