Photo: ASHRAF SHAZLY / AFP / Getty Images
A caged lion bit the right ring finger of a zookeeper in Jamaica, who had been provoking him through a chain link fence.
“When it happened, I thought it was a joke. I didn’t think it was serious,” an unidentified visitor told the Jamaica Observer newspaper about the incident, which occurred on Friday 20 May at the St. Elizabeth Zoo.
Link to the video.
The passer-by, who was part of a tour with 15 people, said that the zookeeper was trying to impress the group by reaching out in the cage of a huge male lion.
Tourists recorded the failed stunt on their iPhones.
In the shocking video, the caretaker can be seen brazenly stretching his hand through the chain link fence towards the lion and his mouth as the enraged beast bites him and growls at him.
However, every time he tries to bite him, the reckless keeper pulls his hand away just in time.
Things seem to be going perfectly until the cat bit one of the man’s fingers
, who screamed in pain.
The zookeeper tries to free himself, at one point bracing his feet against the fence to pry, but to no avail, as the mighty predator refused to let go.
Finally, after one last tug, the guardian breaks free and falls backwards as the onlookers gasp.
Initially thinking the bitten finger was part of the demo, bystanders realized this was not the case after the caretaker fell backwards.
Despite the graphic attack , the aforementioned viewer initially thought the man was just kidding.
“I didn’t realize the seriousness of this because it’s your I work putting on a show,” he said. “Obviously when he hit the ground, everyone realized it was serious. Everyone started to panic”.
It was then that they realized the magnitude of the damage. “All the skin and about the first joint of her finger were gone”, exclaimed a horrified girl, who he supposedly left the scene, because the scene was “too graphic”, adding: “His facial expression when he walked was as if the pain would never subside.”
Apparently neither zoo representatives nor law enforcement sources were aware of the incident when contacted by the Observer.
However, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of Jamaica is investigating the incident.
“We will go there and I will contact the National Planning and Environment Agency, which oversees the Jamaica Zoo,” said Pamela Lawson, director of the animal advocacy group. In a more serious attack on a captive cat in March, a Florida animal sanctuary employee was mauled by a tiger after trespassing.
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