When Animals Attack: Big Cats

Incidents in 2003    Incidents in 2002    Incidents in 2001    Incidents in 2000    Incidents in 1999    Incidents in 1998    Incidents in 1997    Incidents in 1996    Incidents in 1995-1990

The following is a partial listing of incidents involving captive big cats since 1990. These incidents have resulted in the killing of 87 big cats, 53 human deaths, and more than 180 human injuries. Contact PETA for documentation.

1997:

November 7, 1997/Shubra al-Khaima, Egypt: Three starving lions belonging to a traveling circus mauled to death a teenage boy who had been hired 10 days earlier to clean cages. The lions had been left in a cage without food for several days near a bus station in a densely populated neighborhood outside Cairo.

October 22, 1997/Calabasas, Calif.: The same jaguar who attacked a trainer on 10/16/97 attacked another trainer who suffered bite wounds on his leg and a cut to his hand on a movie set.

October 16, 1997/Calabasas, Calif.: A trainer on a movie set in California underwent surgery to repair a broken leg after being attacked by a jaguar. She was expected to remain hospitalized in fair condition for several days.

September 1997/Port Perry, Ontario, Canada: A 6-year-old girl was attacked and left permanently scarred by a jaguar at the Northwood Buffalo and Exotic Animal Ranch. The girl put her arm through the wire mesh of the cage, and the cat grasped her with his paws and mouth. The girl’s family was awarded more than $31,500 in a lawsuit.

August 17, 1997/Marshfield, Mass.: A 13-year-old girl was rushed to the emergency room after being bitten by a tiger during a photo session in Massachusetts. The girl had to undergo painful rabies treatment. The Marshfield Mass. Animal Control Department reported "several" other bites associated with this photo booth.

August 3, 1997/Tokyo, Japan: A Japanese couple was mauled to death by a tiger at a safari park near Tokyo.

June 7, 1997/Scappoose, Ore.: A woman suffered deep puncture wounds to the neck and post-traumatic stress disorder when she was attacked by a neighbor’s "pet" leopard.

May 19, 1997/Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: A 4-year-old boy was killed after a lion who was being taken for a stroll broke loose and mauled him.

May 13, 1997/Strassburg, Germany: During a circus performance a tiger attacked a circus worker and seriously hurt him while he was setting up cages.

May 8, 1997/Lubbock, Texas: One of five "pet" tigers mauled his owner. The man was admitted to the hospital in critical condition. The owner’s son killed the tiger.

May 7, 1997/Carrollton, Pa.: A tiger used in the Franzen Bros. Circus killed a trainer in front of 200 horrified schoolchildren.

May 4, 1997/Knox County, Tenn.: A tiger mauled a student at Joe Robinson’s roadside menagerie.

April 29, 1997/Oklahoma City, Okla.: A leopard escaped from his cage killed a woman at an exotic animal "sanctuary." Sheriff's deputies shot and killed the leopard seven hours later when he was found along a road nearly a half-mile from Oak Hill Center for Rare and Endangered Species.

April 27, 1997/San Antonio, Texas: A man lost his finger and his friend was injured when they broke into an exotic animal orphanage and tried to pet a tiger.

April 4, 1997/Dallas, Texas: A "pet" bobcat mauled a toddler. The 2-year-old boy lost his right index finger, had his heel chewed off, and suffered a severe bite wound to his right cheek.

March 19, 1997/Orlando, Fla.: A tiger escaped from a cage and mauled a
keeper at exotic cat breeding compound. The keeper suffered a broken thigh, crushed knee and severed arteries and veins in his leg. Authorities later shot and killed the tiger because they feared the animal would jump a perimeter fence and flee the compound.

March 18, 1997/San Antonio, Texas: A tiger escaped from a wildlife animal refuge, killing an ostrich and pawing a sheriff’s deputy before being tranquilized and recaptured.

March 12, 1997/Caudwell, Texas: A 13-year-old boy was attacked by a "pet" tiger and a lion kept in a cage built into the side of his grandfather’s house. The boy’s father said, "My boy was not mauled, he was being eaten alive."

1997/Texas: A lion kept in a cage as a backyard "pet" bit a visitor’s hand and tried to pull her into the cage. She had four deeply grooved cuts requiring 21 stitches. The owner claimed that in the past, when the lion "got out of control," squirting him in the eyes with a spray bottle full of vinegar usually "calmed him down."

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