Search Exotic Incidents Database

A 3-ft-long alligator was captured after he was spotted in the road.

A 14-ft-long python crushed his “owner” to death.

A 3-ft-long alligator was caught in a drainage culvert.

El Paso Zoo collections supervisor Allan Seidon was fired for allegedly failing to follow animal handling policies and procedures during an incident on 08/01/06 in which it was reported that he struck Juno, a 39-year-old Asian elephant. This was the second allegation of abuse at the zoo involving Seidon, who was seen on a 1999 training tape beating Sissy, an Asian elephant who was subsequently relocated to the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee.

A police officer shot and killed a wolf after he escapes from his cage. The wolf killed two small dogs and tried to bite a neighbor.

Police were forced to corral an escaped “pet” kangaroo with their cars, considering kangaroos potentially “vicious animals.”

A rhesus macaque being kept as a “pet” escaped its cage and bit a 14-year-old-girl severely enough that she was admitted to the hospital. The monkey now resides at the API (now Born Free USA) Primate Sanctuary in Texas.

A 14-year-old Sumatran tiger, Enshala, was shot and killed after she slipped through an open door and into an enclosure construction area at the Lowry Park Zoo after a zookeeper left the door latch unlocked. The zookeeper was subsequently fired and possibly faced criminal charge for unsafe behavior.

A 7-year-old boy was bitten on the hand while petting a dolphin at Sea World’s Dolphin Cove. Two adults pried open the dolphin’s mouth to free the boy, who sustained minor bruising injuries. This was Sea World’s second dolphin bite incident in three weeks.

A 3-year-old girl was attacked by a neighbor’s escaped “pet” monkey as her grandmother buckled her into a car seat. The child was rushed to Emergency where stitches were required to close the wounds to her face.