A staff member at Carole Baskin’s Big Cat Animal Rescue survived a scary tiger attack.
According to TMZ, the Hillsborough Fire Rescue received an emergency call early this morning (December 3) about one of Baskin’s workers suffering a painful injury after her arm was nearly torn off when one of the big cats bit into her hand.
One of the big cat rescue’s longtime volunteers, Candy Couser, was attacked by the tiger Kimba after she stuck her hand into his cell to open the door for feeding time. Per what the Tiger King star and her husband, Howard Baskin, recounted to TMZ, Kimba grasped Candy and began thrashing her, causing serious wounds to her arm and shoulder. It wasn’t until when other staffers ran to the scene that Kimba let go of Candy’s arms.
The workers kept Candy administered a tourniquet and compressed it to the wounds until paramedics arrived on the scene 15 minutes later. Thankfully, it’s said Candy was conscious when the ambulance transported her to a hospital and that she is expected to survive her injuries. Despite Kimba’s attacking her, Candy pled that no harm be brought to the animal, who was said to have been “just acting normal” in the presence of food.
Kimba has since been put in a 30-day quarantine as a safety precaution.
To get to the tiger, who is enclosed behind two “guillotine-style tunnel doors,” Candy had to open the first door but the second door had been clipped shut.
"This is our universal signal NOT to open a gate without the coordinator coming to assist, but Candy said she just wasn't thinking when she reached in to unclip it,” the Baskins told TMZ. “It is against our protocols for anyone to stick any part of their body into a cage with a cat in it."
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