Jaguar attacks woman taking selfie at Arizona zoo
A woman was attacked by a jaguar at an Arizona zoo Saturday after leaning over an enclosure’s barrier to take a selfie.
Fire officials in Litchfield Park, Ariz., said the visitor, who is in her 30s, sustained injuries that were not life-threatening at Wildlife World Zoo, according to Arizona’s CBS 5 News.
The officials said she was “attempting to take a selfie near the fence of the Jaguar enclosure when the cat reached out and attacked her arm.”
Mickey Ollson, the director of Wildlife World Zoo, told the station that there is “no way to fix people crossing barriers.”
{mosads}”That happens occasionally,” Ollson said. “And we put substantial barriers there and if people cross them, they can get in trouble.”
The zoo confirmed the incident in a tweet, saying the animal was “at no time” out of its enclosure, and urged visitors to “please understand why barriers are put in place.”
Please understand why barriers are put in place. Sending prayers to the family tonight. pic.twitter.com/2MPb8bXhwR
— Wildlife World Zoo, Aquarium & Safari Park (@ZooWildlife) March 10, 2019
Video of the incident taken by another zoo visitor shows the woman on the ground following the attack.
“She was lying on the ground screaming in agony,” the visitor who took the video wrote in a post.
Ollson told CBS 5 that this is the second time the jaguar has attacked a visitor who crossed the enclosure barrier, but the earlier incident was not as serious.
The woman is expected to recover.
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