Search Exotic Incidents Database

Inside Edition filmed G.W. Exotic Animal Park’s traveling tiger exhibit at the Northgate Mall, where shoppers could pay to get their pictures taken with a cub and play with the babies in a pen. One eight-week-old cub was obviously sick and barely moved during filming. Another cub on display was missing a patch of fur and appeared distressed while posing in photos.

Also on display were six-month-old tigers. They were kept behind a cage because by law, the public is not allowed to interact with tigers older than three months. However, an employee said he got scratched by one of the older tigers just the day before: “There was blood everywhere. It was just a total, total mess.”

A teenager allowed to handle a tiger and leopard during a photo shoot was bitten by the leopard, according to a USDA complaint. Immediately after, a leopard was left loose and unattended inside an admission/gift shop building, whereupon two adults and toddler entered and one adult and the child were injured.

A pet wallaby who escaped and was found wandering the neighborhood was caught and taken to the Kansas City Zoo. Although his guardian wanted him back, the Platte City Board of Altderman voted to keep the city’s exotic animal restrictions in place due to public safety repucussions. A new home will have to be found for Noah, the wallaby.

A 30-year old man was arrested after authorities found an alligator, a rat snake, and 33 tortoises and turtles in filthy conditions along with an elaborate marjijuana-growing operation in his home. The man was booked on suspicion of manufacturing marijuana and cited on suspicion of harboring a nondomestic animal and numerous counts of animal cruelty.

A 12-year old female lion named Kalisa got out of her den at the Woodland Park Zoo and was roaming the hallway of a service building before being tranquilized and returned to her enclosure.

A spider monkey escaped his enclosure. Staff members later captured the primate and returned him to his enclosure. Human error appears to be he reason for the escape. A chimpanzee escaped from his enclosure 2 weeks prior at this zoo.

A black bear cub, a monkey and a 3-pound fox were confiscated by officials from a man keeping them as pets due to lack of proper permits. Officials are trying to locate sanctuaries that could take them in.

A fast moving fire left a giraffe, birds and dogs dead at the Animal Kingdom Zoo. This was the third fire on the property in a year.

A baby bottlenose dolphin died minutes after birth at the Brookfield Zoo. Cause of death has not been determined.

Authorities in Florida shot and killed a 16-foot long python after it swallowed an entire 76-pound adult deer. The python had a girth of 44 inches with the deer in its stomach. Burmese pythons have been breeding in the Everglades over the past several years after they escaped from owners, or the owners dumped them.