Tiger Mauls Handler At Amusement Park

A tiger mauled its handler at a popular amusement park on Australia’s Gold Coast, leaving the seasoned worker in the hospital with “serious lacerations and puncture wounds” on her arm.

Tiger Mauls Handler At Amusement Park

According to the Queensland Ambulance Service, the anonymous 47-year-old handler was working with one of Dreamworld’s nine big cats when she was assaulted soon before 9 a.m. local time Monday.

Before paramedics came, park personnel managed to hold the animal.

“The patient obviously had received some serious lacerations and puncture wounds from the animal,” Queensland Ambulance Service acting district director Justin Payne told reporters.

“Thankfully on their arrival the bleeding had been managed very well by first aid providers there at Dreamworld, which was excellent to see,” Payne told me.

He said the handler “was quite pale and feeling unwell” but is now in stable condition at Gold Coast University Hospital.

Dreamworld stated in a statement that Monday’s attack was a “isolated and rare incident” and that the company’s “immediate focus is on the support of the team member.”

Dreamworld declined to answer any further concerns about the animal’s welfare.

The park was open to the public on Monday.

Tiger Mauls Handler At Amusement Park

Dreamworld’s Tiger Island exhibit is described as an “interactive” experience in which guests “can get so close you could feel the breath of a tiger.”

The park’s website promotes the option for guests to feed some of its nine Bengal and Sumatran.

Monday’s attack isn’t the first time an animal has hurt Dreamworld employees. According to local media reports from 2011, Keto, a 160-kilogram Bengal tiger, bit two handlers in two different episodes.

SOURCE | CNN