Tiger savagely attacks caretaker after entering enclosure without authorization

On Tuesday, the injured victim of a tiger attack at Wooten’s Airboats in the Everglades was taken to the hospital.

The attacked employee, who was not permitted to be with the animal, suffered injuries to both arms and was taken to the hospital by emergency medical services, according to the Collier County Sheriff’s Office.

“Preliminary (initial) information suggests that a tiger in an enclosure at that location was being fed by its [sic] caretaker when a 50-year-old man employee of Wooten’s who was not permitted to be with the tiger entered the tigers enclosure,” according to the sheriff’s office statement.

The sheriff’s office said it was “having a hard time comprehending this happening again,” but that it still wanted to convey the news.

Wooten’s Airboats is a longstanding boat tour company located in Ochopee, Florida, an unincorporated area of Collier County.

It offers various tours of Everglades National Park and operates a wildlife sanctuary that is home to multiple tigers, lions, turtles, otters, and some 100 alligators.

The tiger was not injured in the incident and was safely subdued by its caretaker.

This was not the first tiger attack in the area in recent months. Last December, a man named River Rosenquist who worked for a cleaning company at the Naples Zoo at Caribbean Gardens was attacked by a tiger.

Sheriff’s deputies shot the tiger to free Rosenquist, and the tiger later died of its wounds.

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