Phuket park shuts tiger pen after Australian tourist mauled

PHUKET — Officials at Phuket’s Tiger Kingdom park have closed its Big Cat area temporarily after an Australian tourist was mauled on Tuesday (Oct 21).

Witnesses at the scene said Australian tourist Mr Paul Goudie, 49, stepped inside a cage to pet a 15-month-old tiger. The animal attacked unexpectedly and a park attendant dragged the victim to safety.

Mr Goudie suffered bites to both legs and stomach and underwent one surgical procedure, with more scheduled. 

The Tiger Kingdom, which opened in Phuket in August last year, draws hundreds of tourists per day who can enter several tiger enclosures to touch and take photos with the tigers or feed the cubs. The tigers are reportedly chained and drugged so that vistors can get close to the wild animals.

Tiger and other animal parks in Thailand have been drawing increasing criticism, not only due to treatment of the animals that activists and many tourists say is cruel, but because the wild animals occasionally still resort to their natural instincts despite their sedation.

A 19-year-old British tourist suffered permanent scarring at Tiger Temple park in Kanchanaburi last year when a fully-grown tiger knocked her down and bit her leg.

In 2011, a Thai woman suffered severe head and arm injuries after being mauled at the Million Years Stone Park in Pattaya. And in 2009, a New Zealand tourist was hospitalised for weeks after she set off an attack by touching a tiger’s head at the Khumsu Chiang Mai Tiger Centre in northern Thailand.

Tourists could still see smaller tigers in cages today, but the zone where tourists can pet and pose for pictures with the animals was closed off. THE BANGKOK POST