Leopard Mauls Florida Man During $150 “Close Encounter” Photoshoot
Man suffers severe lacerations and required multiple surgeries after an unethical roadside zoo encounter turned violent.
A captive leopard. Credit: Amy Jones/Moving Animals
A man who paid $150 for a “close encounter” experience with a captive leopard in Florida has suffered from multiple lacerations after the leopard mauled him.
Dwight Turner was attacked whilst inside the leopard's cage, leaving the man’s right ear ripped in half, as well as damage to his head that left part of his scalp dangling off.
He has since had multiple surgeries following the incident, which happened in a home on Earnest Boulevard, Florida.
The exotic cat’s owner, Michael Poggi, had charged Turner $150 for a “full-contact experience” with his black leopard - to “play with it, rub its belly and take pictures”, investigators told local press.
Poggi has a license as an animal dealer and owns the leopard legally, but has admitted the encounter itself was illegal. Authorities have charged Poggi with “allowing full contact with an extremely dangerous animal” and “maintaining captive wildlife in an unsafe condition”.
Poggi is already known to animal campaigners, who say he is also “a notorious backyard breeder of primates”. The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) reports that Poggi advertises baby marmosets for sale on the internet for prices as high as $5,900. And in 2014, the animal protection group say that Poggi sold a six-week-old marmoset monkey to a Massachusetts couple for $3,500 - a year later, the monkey was confiscated by the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game because keeping a pet monkey in the state is illegal.
This new mauling incident, along with the prominence of this year’s Tiger King documentary on Netflix, have once again raised America’s longstanding problem with captive exotic animals.
Whilst there are twenty-one states that prohibit the keeping of dangerous exotic pets such as big cats, there is currently no U.S. federal law concerning big cat ownership.
However, campaigners are currently trying to pass the Big Cat Public Safety Act, a legislation which seeks to protect these captive animals by outlawing direct contact between the public and big cats. This would effectively outlaw cruel places like Tiger King Park.
With around 5,000 captive tigers in the US, this act has the potential to help protect big cats by outlawing backyard captive big cat collectors and inhumane cub handling exhibits. Campaigners are urging the public to ask their Member of Congress to support the Big Cat Public Safety Act - you can find out how you can do so here.
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