08/07/2021 4:12 PM
Clarín.com
International
Updated 08/07/2021 4:20 PM
A 21-year-old woman was killed by a tiger attack in a cage at a zoo where she worked, in the O'Higgins region, south of
Santiago de Chile
, official sources confirmed.
The young woman, who worked in the maintenance area of the
Rancagua Safari Park,
was cleaning the facilities around the cages, without noticing that one of them was open, reported from the Carabineros police force.
The feline, a tiger in captivity,
attacked the woman in the neck,
who died a few minutes later despite attempts by the security personnel of the compound to help her and the intervention of the fire department and emergency medical personnel, which failed revive her.
The wild cats climb onto the trellised vehicles in which the visitors of the Safari Park ride.
Antonio Rojas
, general manager of Parque Safari, maintained that a rescue car frightened the animal, which returned to its cage, in order to rescue it, although it was too late and added that
the episode lasted between 10 and 15 minutes in total.
"Nobody expects situations like these to occur and
we are immensely affected by what happened.
What were the circumstances and conditions that failed is a process that is under investigation," he added.
As specified by Rojas, the woman was carrying out
"routine
cleaning
actions"
with a colleague and, specifically, her job consisted of cleaning the gravel from the rails of an
electric gate
near the lion and tiger premises.
One of the lions from the Rancagua zoo, on the roof of a vehicle.
Photo: AFP
The park, which closed its doors to visitors this Saturday after the tragic event, is the
only wildlife rehabilitation center
in the Santiago de Chile region and has been open for 14 years.
Criminal complaint for death
After the death, this Saturday
Chilean senator Guido Girardi
announced that he will file a criminal complaint against those responsible for the deadly tiger attack.
"We are going to file a criminal complaint so that these events do not go unpunished, one person has died," Girardi told reporters.
"
It is not the first time
. There are people who have lost part of their body and animals that have died or have suffered damages as a result of negligence," he added.
The senator is the author of a bill that
seeks to ban zoos
for being considered an animal prison, an initiative that is pending in Congress.
The way forward is that the project will include "criminal penalties and objective civil liability" for lack of security and events such as the one that occurred this Friday.
The senator referred to these enclosures as "
sadomasochistic, pathological and sickly places
where children are taught to enjoy the suffering of another living being" and insisted on the need to eliminate them and change them to places of rehabilitation and conservation of animals.