A 38 year old female employee, Stacey Konwiser who had worked at the Palm Beach Zoo for over three years and took care of 4 Malayan Tigers was mauled to death by one of the Tigers she trained on Friday.
According to the Palm Beach Post, she was performing a routine procedure in the night house where the tigers sleep at about 1:45pm in preparation for her show which was scheduled at 2pm in the Zoo when she got attacked and mauled to death by the 13-year-old tiger.
The zoo was evacuated and shut down and all the guests were safe. Officials say the zoo will be closed for the next two days, according to spokeswoman Naki Carter.
She told the Sun Sentinel:
Malayan tigers are considered an endangered species. There are 250 and 340 of them around the world according to WWF.
As soon as that happened, Animal Control was contacted about the attack but Animal Control contacted the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission who responded to the call.
Zoo officials issued a code red alert after the attack and the male Malayan tiger received tranquilizers. Visitors were all moved to a safe place and all the 250 animals in the Zoo were accounted for.
Konwiser was taken to St Mary's Medical Center where she later died after suffering a 'severe bite' wound, a top zoo official told the newspaper.
Her husband of 10 years Jeremy is also a keeper at Palm Beach Zoo.
She told the Sun Sentinel:
'The tiger never escaped,'.'We have safety protocols for when incidents like this occur. We initiated those safety protocols.'West Palm Beach Police said the tiger was tranquilized. Authorities had to wait until the drugs took effect on the tiger before rescue crews could get in to help the victim.
