ARIZONA : A jaguar clawed an Arizona woman who climbed over a barrier to take a picture at the Wildlife World Zoo near Phoenix, officials said, and the zoo assured animal lovers the big cat would not be put down.
Cellphone video of the incident showed at least one gash on the woman’s left forearm as she writhed on the ground in pain on Saturday.
“I hear this young girl screaming: ‘Help, help, help’ ... and the jaguar has clasped its claws outside the cage around her hand and into her flesh,” witness Adam Wilkerson told Fox 10 television.
Wilkerson’s mother distracted the jaguar by pushing a water bottle through the cage, and Wilkerson said he pulled the woman away. Cellphone video later showed the animal chewing on a plastic water bottle.
The identity of the woman, in her 30s, was being withheld, said Shawn Gilleland, a spokesman for Rural Metro Fire, the agency that responded to the incident.
She was taken to a hospital and treated, then later returned to the zoo to apologize, Gilleland said.
“She wanted to take a selfie or a picture of the animal, and she put her arm close enough to the cage that the cat was able to reach her,” Gilleland said.
The zoo’s statement said the female jaguar never left its enclosure, and that the incident was being fully investigated.
“We can promise you nothing will happen to our jaguar,” the zoo said on Twitter, responding to public concerns the animal might be put down.
The barrier surrounds the entire exhibit, creating a buffer of several feet (meters) from the enclosure, zoo spokeswoman Kristy Morcom told Fox 10
“There is climbing involved. It’s not something that is easily done,” Morcom said. “These are wild animals and those barriers are put there for a reason.”
Jaguar claws Arizona woman who climbed zoo barrier to take a selfie
Jaguar claws Arizona woman who climbed zoo barrier to take a selfie
- The zoo’s statement said the female jaguar never left its enclosure, and that the incident was being fully investigated
Second doctor in Matthew Perry overdose case sentenced to home confinement
- Dr. Mark Chavez, 55, a onetime San Diego-based physician, pleaded guilty in federal court in October
- Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett also sentenced Chavez to 300 hours of community service
LOS ANGELES: A second California doctor was sentenced on Tuesday to eight months of home confinement for illegally supplying “Friends” star Matthew Perry with ketamine, the powerful sedative that caused the actor’s fatal drug overdose in a hot tub in 2023.
Dr. Mark Chavez, 55, a onetime San Diego-based physician, pleaded guilty in federal court in October to a single felony count of conspiracy to distribute the prescription anesthetic and surrendered his medical license in November.
Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett also sentenced Chavez to 300 hours of community service. As part of his plea agreement, Chavez admitted to selling ketamine to another physician Dr. Salvador Plasencia, 44, who in turn supplied the drug to Perry, though not the dose that ultimately killed the performer. Plasencia, who pleaded guilty to four counts of unlawful drug distribution, was sentenced earlier this month to 2 1/2 years behind bars.
He and Chavez were the first two of five people convicted in connection with Perry’s ketamine-induced death to be sent off to prison.
The three others scheduled to be sentenced in the coming weeks — Jasveen Sangha, 42, a drug dealer known as the “Ketamine Queen;” a go-between dealer Erik Fleming, 56; and Perry’s former personal assistant, Iwamasa, 60.
Sangha admitted to supplying the ketamine dose that killed Perry, and Iwamasa acknowledged injecting Perry with it. It was Iwamasa who later found Perry, aged 54, face down and lifeless, in the jacuzzi of his Los Angeles home on October 28, 2023.
An autopsy report concluded the actor died from the acute effects of ketamine,” which combined with other factors in causing him to lose consciousness and drown.
Perry had publicly acknowledged decades of substance abuse, including the years he starred as Chandler Bing on the hit 1990s NBC television series “Friends.”
According to federal law enforcement officials, Perry had been receiving ketamine infusions for treatment of depression and anxiety at a clinic where he became addicted to the drug.
When doctors there refused to increase his dosage, he turned to unscrupulous providers elsewhere willing to exploit Perry’s drug dependency as a way to make quick money, authorities said. Ketamine is a short-acting anesthetic with hallucinogenic properties that is sometimes prescribed to treat depression and other psychiatric disorders. It also has seen widespread abuse as an illicit party drug.
