Woman Has Close Encounter with Jaguar at Zoo

Occurred on March 9, 2019 / Phoenix, Arizona, USA

Info from Licensor: "While visiting the Wildlife World Zoo, myself along with my mother and my two children were enjoying the Jaguar exhibit. A young girl came running around the corner screening ‘Help!’ I ran as fast as I could and as I came around the corner I saw a woman who had her arm up against the cage of the female Jaguar exhibit. The woman was screaming in agony. The Jaguar was growling and attempting to bite the woman but was not able to due to the cage. The claws were digging into the woman’s arms pretty deeply and pulling her off would not be wise at that moment. All I could think was to grab something to attempt to poke the animal, but there was nothing around to do so. There were about five or six people around, all yelling for help or to call 911. No park employees were anywhere around. My mom then ran up and grabbed a water bottle from my kid’s stroller. She then ran up and shoved the bottle through the cage to distract the Jaguar. It worked and she let one paw go and grabbed the bottle, in doing so the woman was released from her grasp, apart from her coat sleeve which is now caught in one of the claws. I grabbed the woman around her torso and along with other bystanders and pulled her away from the Jaguar. She immediately fell to the ground yelling loudly in severe pain and grasping her arm. A man rushed to her aid and began to help her. I then took a step back and began recording to document the event."