OCHOPEE, Fla. — An employee of Wooten’s Everglades Airboat Tours in Ochopee, Florida, was hospitalized Tuesday after being attacked by a tiger in an Everglades-area animal sanctuary, multiple media outlets reported.
BREAKING NEWS 🐅 The Collier County Sheriff's Office is investigating a tiger attack at an airboat company in the Everglades. An unauthorized worker was attacked, the tiger was not hurt. https://t.co/DQHonbWRiI
— NBC2 (@NBC2) March 22, 2022
According to Collier County sheriff’s deputies, a tiger was being fed by its caretaker when a male employee, who was not authorized to be with the tiger, stepped into the large cat’s enclosure, WBBH-TV reported.
The tiger then attacked the 50-year-old man, who has not been identified publicly, injuring both of his arms badly enough to require transport to an area hospital, WFLA reported.
According to authorities, the tiger’s caretaker was able to safely contain the tiger and was not injured, the TV station reported.
“We are having a hard time comprehending this happening again,” the sheriff’s office said in a prepared statement.
According to WFLA, Tuesday’s attack is the second in Florida in the past three months. A Malayan tiger grabbed the arm of a man who stuck his arm into its enclosure at the Naples Zoo earlier this year. Deputies shot and killed the tiger in that attack so that the victim, 26-year-old River Rosenquist, could be rescued.
The tiger involved in Tuesday’s incident was not injured, authorities confirmed to WBBH-TV.
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