At a well-known theme park on Australia’s Gold Coast, a tiger assaulted its handler, sending the seasoned employee to the hospital with “serious lacerations and puncture wounds” to her arm.
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The Queensland Ambulance Service reports that the 47-year-old handler, who was working with one of Dreamworld’s nine tigers, was attacked just before 9 a.m. local time on Monday.
Before paramedics came, park employees were able to subdue the tiger.
“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 said.
The handler “was quite pale and feeling unwell,” but is now in a stable condition at Gold Coast University Hospital, he added.
Dreamworld described the attack on Monday as a “isolated and rare incident” and stated in a statement that its “immediate focus is on the support of the team member.”
Dreamworld refused to comment further on the tiger’s well-being.
On Monday, the park stayed open to the general public.
As an “interactive” experience, Dreamworld’s Tiger Island exhibit promises to allow visitors to “get so close you could feel the breath of a tiger.”
The chance to feed some of the park’s nine Bengal and Sumatran tigers is promoted on the website.
The incident on Monday is not the first time a tiger at Dreamworld has hurt employees. 2011 saw the capture of a 160-kg Bengal tiger named