A wolf hybrid at Zoo’Opolis Exotic Petting World has been quarantined by county health officials after two people were injured at the facility over the Easter weekend, one of them a 9-month-old baby girl.
Bartholomew County Animal Control officers were sent to the facility at 12696 W. County Road 50S on Monday to obtain more information from the owners of the exotic animal facility, health department officials said.
In a letter sent to the facility on Monday, the Bartholomew County Health Department said it received an animal bite report regarding a bite or scratch incident involving the facility’s wolf hybrid with allegations from the girls’ family members that the animal “attacked” the 9-month-old baby, who had scrapes and cuts to her face and head.
“My wolf did not bite,” Zoo’Opolis owner Kathleen Bowen said in a telephone interview Monday. “She (the 9-month-old) was injured by the grandmother when she hit the wolf in the face with her forearm and caused the abrasion. There was no bite. The wolf did not attack.”
According to the health department’s report, the incident happened at 3:30 p.m. Friday at the facility.
“We were at a petting zoo (Zoo’Opolis) and we were told kids could play with the wolf,” according to the victim statement on the health department report. “We sat her (the 9-month-old) beside the wolf and it attacked her and put her whole head in its mouth,” the written statement to the health department said. “My mom pushed the wolf away and it bit her also.”
Lucas Huff, was visiting the facility with his wife and two sons, age 4 and age 2, his in-laws, and a brother and sister-in-law who brought their 9-month old daughter Renea Robinson, he said.
“The organization’s members were keeping this animal (the wolf hybrid) in the basement of the house on the property and were allowing their guests to freely interact with it,” Huff said. “Toward the end of our visit, my 9-month-old niece was attacked by this animal. The child’s grandmother had sat her down near it for a photo opportunity. No member of the staff present made any objections.”
Huff said the attack ended quickly with the child’s grandmother grabbing the animal and removing its jaws from the baby’s head. The baby had scrapes and abrasions on her right cheek and open scratches on the back of her head, Huff said. However the report states that as the grandmother pushed the wolf hybrid away, it bit her also.
For more on this story, see Tuesday’s Republic.
