A volunteer staffer at Big Cat Animal Rescue in Tampa nearly lost an arm after being attacked by a tiger on Thursday morning.
Early on Dec. 3, medics responded to the Florida sanctuary, which is owned by reality TV star Carole Baskin, after a woman suffered a severe bite to her arm and hand.
While describing the situation to TMZ, Carole and her husband, Howard Baskin, said a longtime volunteer named Candy Couser stuck her hand into the tiger's enclosure in order to open the door to feed it. Just then, the tiger, named Kimba, bit down on Candy's hand and "started thrashing."
Kimba only let go of Candy's arm after other staffers came running to help. During the incident, the woman's arm was nearly torn off. While waiting for medics to arrive, staffers reportedly applied a tourniquet and pressure to the wounds.
After the incident, the Baskins noted that Kimba's enclosure has two guillotine-style tunnel doors. Candy, they say, opened the first and found that the second door was clipped shut.
"This is our universal signal NOT to open a gate without the coordinator coming to assist, but Candy said she just wasn't thinking when she reached in to un clip it," the couple says. "It is against our protocols for anyone to stick any part of their body into a cage with a cat in it."
The incident was described on Big Cat's Instagram, as well.
"Carole reminded everyone that this sort of tragedy can happen in the blink of an eye and that we cannot relax our guard for a second around these dangerous cats," the Instagram caption said.
The couple maintains that Kimba was just acting normally considering food was present. Further, they say Candy was conscious in the ambulance and is expected to survive. She was also supposedly adamant that the tiger remained unharmed.
Kimba will be quarantined for the next 30 days as a precaution.
Carole, of course, rose to fame earlier this year after being prominently featured in Netflix's smash "The Tiger King." She is rather controversial. While many see her as a rescuer of animals, just as many others view her as a villain. Many critics continue to allege that she had a hand in her first husband's disappearance more than 23 years ago.
This fall, ABC capitalized on Carole's notoriety and cast her in "Dancing With The Stars." She was eliminated from the competition after just two weeks.