A two-year-old boy from Israel was mauled by a leopard at safari park in Thailand. His grandfather, who assumed that the big cat named Tony was tame, opened the door to its pen.
According to a report from Coconuts, which provides news and lifestyle content to expatriates and English-speaking Thais, Naphat Pluemsut, zoo executive advisor said, ‘there is a sign on the door reading “no entry unless accompanied by a staff member.”’
The boy Orr Burns, was mauled on Thursday 22 August on the island of Ko Samui, after the leopard rushed out of its pen, jumped on Orr’s mother and then went for the toddler.
Naphat told reporters, ‘Tony is usually a[sic] very tame. During the incident, there were a lot of tourists, so I think that he panicked and ended up running into the toddler, who was in his path.’
Photo: WikiCommons / Tomas Najer
CCTV footage of the incident released on Monday was first published by UK press and the Mirror reported that ‘it pinned the youngster to the ground and sank its teeth into his face, before letting go when locals kicked it in the head.’ Based on the footage, the leopard was out of his enclosure for a total of 8 seconds before he was herded back into his enclosure and the door was shut.
The boy sustained serious injuries to his face, including a broken cheekbone.
According to The Times of Israel, Burns was ‘rushed to a local hospital, where his head was bandaged by doctors, a CT scan was taken of the wounded area, and he was rushed into surgery. Doctors said his condition was stable.’
On Sunday he was flown back to Israel for more treatment at Sheba hospital near Tel Aviv.
The Times of Israel also reported that The Namuang Safari Park said it had covered the costs of the medical treatment the boy received in Thailand.
Coconuts reports that the safari park said it would add staff and build another cage for the big cats. ‘From now on, tourists won’t be able to simply unlatch doors separating squishy human from wild feline.’
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