Jaguar mauls Catoctin zoo worker

THURMONT — A female zookeeper was in critical condition at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma unit after she was attacked by a jaguar Sunday morning at the Catoctin Wildlife Preserve and Zoo.

"She was inside the jaguar enclosure and hadn't secured the area where she was working," said Harold Domer, executive director of Frederick County Animal Control. The woman suffered several bite wounds, he said, and her condition was critical Sunday evening.

Two jaguars were in the enclosure at the time, and both since have been quarantined, according to a statement from the zoo.

The woman, whose name was not released by the zoo, was performing maintenance in an area that would normally be secured, when a 300-pound male jaguar entered the area and attacked her just before 11 a.m. The Catoctin Zoo said in a statement that staff members responded to her call for help and were able to move both animals to another part of the enclosure, secure the site and perform first aid.

Jason Schultz, assistant chief of the Thurmont Ambulance Company, responded and treated the woman at the scene. He would not comment on her injuries. She was then flown by helicopter to Shock Trauma.

"The jaguar went through whatever normally secures one area from the other, and the jaguar entered the area where she was," Domer said.

Both jaguars are current on their rabies shots through September of this year, Domer said. An Animal Control officer was called to the scene shortly after 11 a.m. because of the bite wounds, he said.

The zoo has not had many incidents but has always been cooperative, he said. Domer plans to meet with the zoo's executive director, Richard Hahn, on Monday.

A jaguar killed an employee of the Denver Zoo in early 2007 when the young woman left the door to the jaguar enclosure open. The animal was subsequently shot and killed.

Marc Bekoff, a retired University of Colorado professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and the author of "The Emotional Lives of Animals," said zoo employees never should leave an enclosure housing a predatory animal unsecured.

"She's lucky she's alive," he said of the Catoctin Zoo employee. "In times like these, you hate to blame somebody, but not securing an area is not a good thing to do. You're keeping these wide-ranging carnivores in prisons. You never know what's going on in the heads of these animals."

Such accidents tend to happen on weekends and holidays when zoos have less staff, he said. He has worked in wolf sanctuaries, and said work inside an animal's enclosure is always done in teams of two to prevent potential mishaps. Large carnivorous animals require a lot of care and maintenance when kept in captivity, he said.

The Catoctin Zoo has 450 animals on 35 acres.

Fredrick NewsPost
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"How about this Marc Bekoff? He's a real genius. Money well spent on his education. Never leave a feline cage unlocked. Thanks Professer, we'll keep that wisdom in mind. He authors a book titled "The Emotional Lives of Animals", then says, "You never know what's going on in the heads of these animals." Yet I bet if he wrote that they loved you with the passion of a Sheiks harem, and should be registered to vote, there would be numbnuts quoting him. LOL The newspaper located a "Jeff Corwin" to babble some insight."

Courtesy of Dr. Marcan