October 14, 2003 Little Ferry, NJ A 44-year-old man was found dead in his garage, the apparent victim of a bite from his “pet” Gabon viper. Reptiles
August 3, 2003 Dayton, OH A firefighter was bitten on his left hand by his “pet” rhino viper snake and rushed to the hospital where he died the next day. Reptiles
April 25, 2003 Boise, ID A 13-month-old boy dies after being attacked by a wolf-hybrid. The child suffered more than a hundred bite wounds and a punctured jugular vein. Other
April 2, 2003 San Antonio, TX A buffalo at a petting zoo behind Rachel’s Country Corner gored and trampled a 29-year-old caretaker to death. USDA officials were looking into possible violations of the Animal Welfare Act. Other
March 31, 2003 Adair, OK A tiger attacked a volunteer handler at Safari Joe’s Rock Creek Exotic Animal Park when she leaned against the cage. The tiger ripped off her left arm. The woman died from loss of blood. The tiger belonged to International Wildlife Center of Texas, which leased the building in the park. Big Cats
March 31, 2003 Hennepin, IL The owner of Second Nature Exotic Cats Sanctuary was attacked and killed by one of two tigers he released from a building into a penned enclosure for exercise. Police shot both tigers to rescue the wounded and bleeding man, only to discover he was already dead. A search of the property found a third tiger, a lion, and a cougar. Big Cats
January 31, 2003 Choctaw County, AL A deer gored a 79-year-old man to death while the man was working on a fence. The deer was the man’s “pet.” Other
November 18, 2002 Pittsburgh, PA An 18-year-old female African elephant knocked her handler to the ground with her head and crushed him to death. The incident occurred at the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium during a routine morning walk of the elephant and her 3-year-old baby on the zoo’s African Savannah trail before the zoo opened. Elephants
June 2, 2002 Wickliffe, KY A 5-year-old boy was mauled to death by a wolf-hybrid during a visit to his grandmother’s house. The “owner” of the animal was ordered to serve 6 months in jail with a picture of the child on her cell wall. Other
February 3, 2002 Aurora, CO A 43-year-old man was strangled to death by his 10-ft-long “pet” Burmese python. Reptiles