"A caretaker at Tippi Hedren's animal sanctuary was critically mauled by a Bengal tiger, an attack the actress blamed not on the animal but on breeders.
Chris Orr, 40, was bitten Monday in the neck at Shambala Preserve while cleaning the tiger's cage at the 80-acre wildlife habitat in Acton.
He was flown to a hospital in critical but stable condition, said Art Marrujo, a county Fire Department dispatch supervisor.
"This is a terrible shock to us," Hedren told The Associated Press in a phone interview.
Hedren said she didn't know what may have set the 4-year-old tiger off. She said she rescued the animal in 2003 after state regulators shut down a facility that was illegally breeding tigers.
"We'll never know why these animals do these things," Hedren said."
I read these reports every few months and am always suitably shocked.
More so this time.
Tippi...IT'S A TIGER!
Years ago my wife and I became friends with the owner of a local exotic animal rescue facility.
Like Tippi has.
We saw the continuing need and so we built an enclosure to what were at that time the Texas standards for keeping a tiger or lion.
It's still in my backyard, over 700 square feet, and has been empty for a long time.
But, when there was a leopard, and after that a mountain lion in the enclosure....NEVER was anyone in the cage with the animal.
It's not safe.
So, how do you clean and feed, safely?
There's really TWO cages, separated by a guillotine style door. Whatever side the animal is on, it's OK to go in the other and work.
Too bad Mr. Orr thought that he had such a special rerlationship with a TIGER and forgot that it's a TIGER.
Chris Orr, 40, was bitten Monday in the neck at Shambala Preserve while cleaning the tiger's cage at the 80-acre wildlife habitat in Acton.
He was flown to a hospital in critical but stable condition, said Art Marrujo, a county Fire Department dispatch supervisor.
"This is a terrible shock to us," Hedren told The Associated Press in a phone interview.
Hedren said she didn't know what may have set the 4-year-old tiger off. She said she rescued the animal in 2003 after state regulators shut down a facility that was illegally breeding tigers.
"We'll never know why these animals do these things," Hedren said."
I read these reports every few months and am always suitably shocked.
More so this time.
Tippi...IT'S A TIGER!
Years ago my wife and I became friends with the owner of a local exotic animal rescue facility.
Like Tippi has.
We saw the continuing need and so we built an enclosure to what were at that time the Texas standards for keeping a tiger or lion.
It's still in my backyard, over 700 square feet, and has been empty for a long time.
But, when there was a leopard, and after that a mountain lion in the enclosure....NEVER was anyone in the cage with the animal.
It's not safe.
So, how do you clean and feed, safely?
There's really TWO cages, separated by a guillotine style door. Whatever side the animal is on, it's OK to go in the other and work.
Too bad Mr. Orr thought that he had such a special rerlationship with a TIGER and forgot that it's a TIGER.
