Handler attacked by tiger in Australia theme park
A trained tiger handler in Australia has been taken to hospital to treat injuries to her arm after one of the tigers at an Australian theme park attacked her. Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) said that the women is in a stable condition after sustaining cuts and scratches while working at Dreamworld in Queensland’s Gold Coast.
“This was an isolated and rare incident, and we will conduct a thorough review accordingly,” the company said in a statement. The popular theme park is visited by nearly two million people every year. It is home to nine tigers including Bengal and the rarer Sumatran subspecies.
QAS reported that medics were called to the scene at 9:01 local time on Monday, 2nd September, “following an incident with the tiger” and also that the woman was immediately taken to the Gold Coast University Hospital to receive treatment.
“She was quite pale and feeling unwell, but in general well and was able to be transported,” QAS acting district director Justin Payne told ABC News. “She is one of the experienced and senior handlers there at Dreamworld… it’s good to see that she was able to be looked after by other support staff there.”
The Tiger Island attraction at Dreamworld is among the few interactive tiger exhibits anywhere in the world, the theme park claims. It opened nearly thirty years ago and has hosted two shows a day where onlookers are invited to see the animals “glide underwater” in in a splash pool, as well as eat their daily meals during feeding time.
Local media reported that there had been a string of incidents at the enclosure over the years. These included a then nine-year-old male Bengal tiger named Kato biting two handlers in 2011. A spokesperson for the company said that it would focus now to provide the handler and any employees involved with the most recent attack with immediate support.
