TIGER ATTACK HOSPITALIZES KEEPER, ZOO SAYS IT WON’T PUT DOWN CAT

A beautiful spring morning at the Topeka Zoo in Kansas turned tragic Saturday when a male Sumatran tiger attacked a keeper, inflicting wounds that sent her to a hospital. Although keepers are never supposed to be in the same space as the tigers, they found themselves together in the outdoor habitat that morning for reasons under investigation.

“There’s some sort of error that occurred here,” said Brendan Wiley, the zoo’s director, who spoke at a news conference Saturday afternoon. He confirmed that several visitors to the zoo had witnessed the attack.

The employee is the zoo’s primary tiger keeper and had worked there for years, according to Wiley, who noted that part of her job is to clean and maintain the enclosure. He said that the keeper was in stable condition and that the zoo was reviewing its safety protocols.

City spokeswoman Molly Hadfield said in an email that “nothing will happen to the tiger; he is a wild animal and was acting on instinct.”