Mother Diana Barrett says will not be renewing her family’s annual pass to the Jungle Island zoo in Miami after a tiger leapt from his enclosure to come within 10 feet of her two-year-old daughter.
Mahesh, a 230kg Bengal tiger, managed to jump over the 12-foot fence and roamed freely around the zoo for about 20 minutes.
Ms Barratt claims she walked around a corner to find her young daughter Dianita calmly staring into the eyes of the huge animal.
‘I rounded the corner and she’s standing there staring at this tiger,’ she said.
‘About 10 to 15ft away from her just standing there not moving, neither two of them were moving.’
Ms Barrat then acted quickly to remove her daughter from the potentially lethal situation.
She told MSNBC: ‘Well the tiger was very calm and I didn’t want to make it anxious at all so I took a few steps towards her [Dianita], picked her up, and walked in the other direction.’
The zoo has said it is thought a 'mischievous' gibbon named Watson was the cause of the scare, with the primate escaping from its cage and antagonising Mahesh who in turn leapt over his 12ft fence.
While the tiger’s escape is being seen as a freak accident, the gibbon’s is not and the zoo could be facing hundreds of dollars in fines over the incident.
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