A zookeeper was still hospitalized Wednesday in Baltimore for injuries she sustained more than a week ago in a jaguar attack that Frederick County zoo officials have ruled “accidental.”
Deborah Gregory, 32, of Severn, remained at University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center 10 days after she was mauled by a male jaguar at the Catoctin Wildlife Preserve and Zoo in Thurmont.
Her family recently issued a statement requesting privacy as Gregory heals and recovers from bite wounds to her head and upper torso.
The Jan. 18 attack was ruled an accident after two separate inspections — one by Frederick County Animal Control and the other by Federal Agriculture Department inspectors — found no safety violations in the jaguar enclosure, said Mary Anne Hahn, a zoo spokeswoman.
Zoo officials don’t know how the 13-year-old black jaguar named Diego, a male weighing between 180 and 200 pounds, traveled through what was supposed to be a secure door between the outside exhibit area and the interior den where Gregory was working.
Animal control workers were not certain if a second jaguar, a female, entered the indoor area or participated in the attack.
Zoo employees heard Gregory’s cries for help during the attack and moved the animals from the interior den to the exterior exhibit area so emergency medical technicians could treat her at the scene.
Both jaguars were up-to-date on rabies vaccinations, but were placed in 30 days of quarantine, beginning Jan. 19, as a safety precaution, said Frederick County Animal Control Officer Harold Domer.
Gregory was a relatively new animal caretaker who’d been working at the privately owned zoo for about a month as a big cat keeper, officials said.
The incident was the zoo’s first serious attack by a carnivore since it opened in 1993. The zoo is closed to the public for the season.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
