A British
student has been left with permanent scarring after a one-hundred-and-eighty
kilogram tiger attacked her at an animal sanctuary in Thailand.
Human Sciences university student
Isabelle Brennan, 19, and her sister Georgie, 21, had only been traveling for a
week when the attack took place at Tiger Temple sanctuary in Thailand's west.
"We were given a talk
beforehand and told not to touch the tiger’s head and to remove dangly
jewellery," Brennan told the UK's The
Daily Mail.
"We were then shown how to
wash a tiger’s back."
It was while Isabelle was petting
and washing a tiger that the animal turned it's head and mauled her, pushing
her to the ground and biting through her thigh.
Isabelle
Brennan with friends before the attack Photo:facebook
Everything
happened so fast," Brennan said.
"One minute I was petting a
tiger’s back, the next it turned its head and knocked me to the ground with its
paw."
Keepers at the animal sanctuary
were quick to act, jumping between Brennan and the animal as elder sister
Georgie dragged her away.
"As it lunged with its teeth
I felt an agonising pain on the inside of my left thigh above my knee.
"When I looked down at my
leg it was terrifying. All I could see was blood," she continued.
Two friends traveling with the
girls quickly tied a tourniquet around Isabelle's leg to stop the bleeding.
She was taken to a local hospital
where 'tens of stitched' were required to repair the large leg wound.
Isabelle also contracted an
infection and high fever, keeping her in hospital in Thailand for more than two
weeks.
"The Tiger Temple staff were
very upset. They paid for all my treatment in hospital and visited every
day."
"They explained the tiger
was just being playful," she told the paper.
"However, I want to warn
others going to Tiger Temple that the animals might not be as docile as they
first appear."
Upon her return to the UK,
Brennan was wheelchair bound and had to re-learn how to walk unassisted.
"I was nervous about going
into the Temple,’ Brennan said.
"However, I was reassured by
the staff that as the tigers had been hand-reared, they were so used to humans
they were completely tame.
"They were also tethered by
chains and the staff told me no-one had ever been seriously injured."
"In hindsight I had an
incredibly lucky escape. I could have lost my leg or worse."
The animal park where the attack
took place is one of only a few in the world where tourists can get
up-close-and-personal with the animals.
The tigers are reportedly
hand-reared by Buddhist monks in the area.
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