Another tiger attack reported in Florida, this time at Everglades tourist attraction
For the second time in three months, a tiger attack is being reported at an animal attraction in Collier County in southwest Florida.
It happened around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 22, and involved a employee of Wooten’s Everglades Airboat Tours, according to the Collier County Sheriff’s Office.
Ignacio Meabe Martinez, 48, survived and remains hospitalized, officials said. Video of the minutes following the attack was posted March 25 on Facebook, with a warning of graphic content. The 911 call was also shared.
“We are having a hard time comprehending this happening again,” the sheriff’s office wrote in a March 22 Facebook post.
“Preliminary (very) info indicates a tiger in an enclosure at that location was being fed by (its) caretaker when a 50 year old male, an employee of Wooten’s who was not authorized to be with the tiger, entered the tiger’s enclosure. The tiger attacked the man.”
The victim suffered “injuries to both arms” and was rushed to a hospital by first responders, officials said. A 911 caller reported Martinez was alert but “in danger of losing his arm,” due to it being “mangled.”211 Martinez is heard calling ambulance and telling bystanders he believed he was going to die.
“The tiger’s caretaker was able to safely contain the tiger. The tiger is not injured,” the sheriff’s office said.
Wooten’s Everglades Airboat Tours in Ochopee includes an animal sanctuary with “two tigers, two lions, otters, turtles and crocodiles,” according to its website. It also has a “live alligator show” that promises to let people “hold and hug an alligator.”
The company is largely known for its airboat and swamp buggy tours through “private Everglades grasslands.”
A YouTube video about the animal sanctuary shows it has had at least two tigers, along with lions, a bobcat, otters and snakes.
The March 22 attack follows a Dec. 29, 2021, incident at the Naples Zoo, involving an 8-year-old Malayan tiger that bit the arm of a cleaning worker, McClatchy News reported.
Investigators say the 26-year-old man “jumped over a fence barrier and put his arm through the fencing” of the tiger’s enclosure, “either to pet or feed him.”
The tiger bit the man’s arm and refused to let go, forcing deputies to shoot the animal, it was reported. The employee survived, but the tiger later died.
This story was originally published March 23, 2022 at 6:26 AM with the headline "Another tiger attack reported in Florida, this time at Everglades tourist attraction."