by Jade Small
Visitors to Wildlife World Zoo in Litchfield Park, Arizona witnessed a woman being attacked by a female Jaguar after she scaled the barrier of the animals enclose to take a close up selfie photo.
Adam Wilkerson and his family was visiting the zoo during the incident, he heard people shouting for help and rand to see what was happening and described the incident inside the enclosure to CNN .
“I saw the other girl up against the fence with her arm caught in the jaguar’s claws.”
Wilkerson’s mother put a water bottle through the fence to distract the animal, the cat let go of the woman’s arm when the bottle landed in the enclosure. The unnamed woman was dragged out of the enclosure by bystanders.
The zoo tweeted the following: “The visitor sustained non-life-threatening injuries to their arm from one of our female jaguars. At the request of the family, paramedics were called. At no time was the animal out of its enclosure…please understand why barriers are put in place. Sending prayers to the family tonight.” The added that the incident is being investigated.
The zoo added: “The incident is being fully investigated.”
#BREAKING: Rural Metro has responded to a report of a woman getting attacked by a jaguar at Wildlife World Zoo.
Courtesy: Adam Wilkerson pic.twitter.com/PMUFL5BWUy
— FOX 10 Phoenix (@FOX10Phoenix) March 10, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
After receiving messages of concern for the animal’s future, Wildlife World Zoo confirmed by tweet on Saturday that the jaguar would not be put down as a result of the incident: “We can promise you nothing will happen to our jaguar. She’s a wild animal and there were proper barriers in place to keep our guests safe – not a wild animal’s fault when barriers are crossed. Still sending prayers to her and her family.”
According to a zoo spokeswoman, the woman has since returned to the zoo to apologise for the incident and said she “feels horrible about the bad publicity the zoo is getting regarding the incident.”
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