Search Exotic Incidents Database

Dillion, a Capuchin monkey with the Hendricks Bros. Circus, leaped from his trainer’s shoulder after a train whistle frightened him. He was found the next day. This was Dillion’s second escape.

Crocus, a 2-ft-long alligator, escaped from his backyard enclosure and was recaptured by a girl.

Jackson, a baby monkey at Primarily Primates, was recaptured after he escaped his enclosure through a hole in a chain link fence. Walter Swett, the facility owner, said the Southwest Foundation had trained him in how to capture animals for Biomedical Research.

A woman suffered a sprained wrist and possibly torn ligaments when Jewel, an Asian elephant on exhibit at the Westmoreland Fair, grabbed her wrist with her trunk after she reached to pet the 8,200-pound pachyderm. Jewel is one of two elephants owned by Cole Bros. Circus and leased to Wambold’s Circus Menagerie, a Florida-based act that travels the country with several exotic animals.

A police officer was attacked by a “pet” squirrel as he was arresting the squirrel’s possessor.

A 1,400-lb male buffalo attacked and killed his caregiver at the Zerebko Zoo-Tran Farm, an exotic animal farm that raises and exhibits exotic animals. A woman was watching the farm while the owners were away on a county fair tour.

A 17-year-old girl was attacked and killed by a Siberian tiger during a photo-op for her high school senior portrait. The 7-year-old tiger was being restrained by trainer Doug Billingsly, owner of Lost Creek Animal Sanctuary and Animal Entertainment Productions, when the attack occurred.

Ganesh, a 7-year-old Asian elephant, was found dead in his stall at the Columbus Zoo, most likely from a viral strain of elephant herpes.

A woman turned over her “pet” mangabey monkey to a wildlife sanctuary after he bit her.

A 5-ft-long alligator, an abandoned “pet,” was found in Machado Lake. The person who abandoned the animal was charged with illegal possession and release of an animal.