[FEL-L] Women Injured after placing arm in Leopard's pen

[BigCatSimba at aol.com]

Woman injured after placing arm in Leopard's pen Friday, 6:13 AM 

Woman Injured After Placing Arm In Leopard’s Pen
By Fawn Roark 

A woman received severe injuries Monday afternoon at the New River Zoo when 
she crossed the safety barrier fence and put her arm into a leopard’s cage, 
according to Director Jeff Jones of Ashe Animal Control.


Diane was the newest leapard to arrive at New River Zoo. The leopard was eu
thanized after a woman put her arm into the cage and was bitten. 
Jones explained that they received the call at 1:06 p.m. and they responded 
immediately to the Zoo. A 36-year-old Hamilton woman, Susan Thomas, had been 
bitten on the arm and wrist area. An investigation was opened by Ashe Animal 
Control to determine the cause and the circumstances surrounding the bite. 

Jones said they determined that Thomas crossed the barrier fence and 
proceeded to put her hand and arm into the leopard’s cage via the gate area of the 
pen. A female black leopard, Diane, then bit down on the woman’s arm. Owner Keith 
Stroud of the New River Zoo observed what was going on and ran up the path to 
the woman. He tried to get the leopard to release and after a short struggle 
he was able to get the leopard to release Thomas’ arm. Emergency personnel 
responded to the scene and transported Thomas to Watauga Medical Center. As of 
Monday evening, Thomas was scheduled to go to surgery. 

“During our investigation at the zoo, we did not find any violations on the 
part of New River Zoo and this was the first incident like this that has 
occurred there. The cat was securely enclosed in its pen and Ms. Thomas crossed the 
barrier fence and attempted to pet the cat,” Jones noted.

The incident was then reported to the appropriate state officials and after 
great consideration, the recommendation from the state was that the leopard be 
euthanized and sent to Raleigh, which has already occurred. “This is a 
lose-lose situation for everyone involved. My hands were tied after the state made 
their recommendation and I had no choice. I was unable to save the cat’s life,” 
Jones noted.

The investigation is still open, Jones said, and at this point in the 
investigation, they have found no violations at the Zoo. Jones was also very careful 
to reiterate that the incident is no reflection of the New River Zoo. “Keith 
is a very good resource for our county and he is a very wonderful educational 
resource for our area. Many school groups go out there often and he does a 
great job educating the children and whoever goes out there. He has a great 
facility and he is trying to do a good thing there,” Jones explained. 

Diane was the newest leopard to arrive at the Zoo. She has been at the Zoo 
since August and was hopefully going to have baby leopards with Loki, a spotted 
leopard. Stroud said he was very appreciative of how Animal Control handled 
the situation. 

“These are wild animals. They may be really tame to me, but they definitely 
will not be as tame to anyone else. Jeff and Animal Control just went out of 
their way to try and save the cat’s life. They did everything they could to 
prevent having to put her down,” Stroud explained. “There was nothing they could 
do to avoid it. They dealt with me in the most respectful way. I have nothing 
but the utmost respect for our animal control officers. Ashe County is lucky 
to have animal control officers like this. It is just a lose-lose situation and 
no one wins in a situation like this. Diane was a very beautiful, very sweet 
animal
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.breuckman.com/pipermail/felines-l/attachments/20061021/9dbe58d0/attachment.html