A tiger mauled its owner at a popular theme park on Australia’s Gold Coast, leaving the experienced worker hospitalised with “severe lacerations and puncture wounds” to her arm.
The 47-year-old handler was working with one of Dreamworld’s nine tigers when, according to the Queensland Ambulance Service, she was attacked shortly before 9am local time on Monday.
Park staff managed to subdue the tiger before paramedics arrived.
“The patient had clearly received severe lacerations and puncture wounds caused by the animal,” Queensland Ambulance Service acting chief executive Justin Payne told reporters.
“Thankfully, when they arrived the bleeding had been managed very well by the Dreamworld paramedics, which was great to see,” Payne said.
The dog handler “was quite pale and not feeling well” but is now in a stable condition at Gold Coast University Hospital, he added.
In a statement, Dreamworld said Monday’s attack was an “isolated and rare incident” and that the company’s “immediate focus is on supporting the team member.”
Dreamworld declined to answer further questions about the tiger’s welfare.
The park remained open to the public on Monday.
Dreamworld’s Tiger Island exhibit is billed as an “interactive” experience where visitors can “get so close they might feel a tiger’s breath”.
The park’s website advertises the opportunity for visitors to feed some of its nine Bengal and Sumatran tigers.
Monday’s attack is not the first time a tiger has injured a Dreamworld employee. In 2011, a 350-pound Bengal tiger named Keto bit two keepers in two separate incidents, according to local media reports at the time.
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