The Bridgeton Police Department is looking for a woman who jumped into the tiger enclosure of a South Jersey zoo and tried touching the nearly 500-pound cat. Per News 12 New Jersey, the incident, which was captured on video, happened at the Cohanzick Zoo.
In the video, the unidentified woman is seen scaling over the fence and getting very close to the Bengal tiger. She is then seen trying to insert her hand through a fence separating her from the animal, but the tiger subsequently reacts by trying to bite and lunge at her. The woman is seen walking away shortly after.
The zoo is said to have a sign that warns visitors about the consequences they could face for climbing any fence on the facility. “Climbing on any zoo fence is against city ordinance 247,” the sign in question reads.
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The ordinance also states that any individual caught in that act could be restricted or banned from entering the zoo. “The high quality care of the animals, along with the safety of our guests and visitors, is our top priority,’ John Medica, Director of Recreation and Public Affairs for the City of Bridgeton, told PEOPLE in a statement.
“Any visitor behavior that places the animals, staff and members of the public in a potentially dangerous situation is unacceptable and will be addressed accordingly.”
The zoo on its website states that it currently has two Bengal tigers under its care, adding that they were born in 2016 before a North Carolina zoo donated them to the Cohanzick Zoo in 2017.
“Weighing only around 20 pounds when they arrived, the tigers now weigh nearly 500 pounds each,” the zoo states. “Bengal tigers (also known as Indian tigers) are considered an endangered species, with numbers rapidly declining. As of October 2022 it was estimated that there were only about 3,500 Bengals left in the wild.”
