A terrifying incident happened on Thursday morning at Carole Baskin’s Big Cat Rescue animal sanctuary that is now making headlines around the world.

Baskin’s sanctuary, which is located near Tampa, Florida, was made famous earlier this year when its owner was featured in the smash hit Netflix documentary series “Tiger King.” A press release that came out today states that Candy Couser, who has been volunteering at the sanctuary for the past five years, almost had her arm torn off by a male tiger named Kimba during feeding.

The statement explained that Couser had seen that Kimba was locked in a section that was different from the one he is typically fed in, so she radio’d the coordinator to find out why.

“Kimba had been locked away from that section for several days as cameras were being installed there. She opened a guillotine tunnel door at one end of the tunnel, and when she went to raise the second door, she saw it was clipped shut,” explained the press release obtained by Entertainment Tonight. “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. It is against our protocols for anyone to stick any part of their body into a cage with a cat in it. Kimba grabbed her arm and nearly tore it off at the shoulder.”

“Jane heard the commotion and came running. Kimba dropped his grip and Candy fell away from the side of the tunnel. Gina being a nurse held off the artery under Candy’s armpit to stop the bleeding and Marc, who had pulled Candy to safety, used his belt as a tourniquet as others called for an ambulance. Gina packed her arm in ice packs to try and save it. The ambulance arrived within 15-20 minutes of the accident,” the release continued. “Candy was still conscious and insisted that she did not want Kimba Tiger to come to any harm for this mistake. He is being placed in quarantine for the next 30 days as a precaution, but was just acting normal due to the presence of food and the opportunity.”

Volunteer injured by tiger at Big Cat Rescue. https://t.co/Ay83JdVcP6 pic.twitter.com/gUtAAr3QwO

— Big Cat Rescue (@BigCatRescue) December 3, 2020

Volunteers and staffers met with Baskin immediately after the incident to discuss it, and she reminded them 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.”

“This happened on the day our federal bill to ban cub handling and private possession comes to the House floor for a vote,” the release added. “The fact that, despite our intense safety protocols and excellent record of safety, an injury like this can occur just confirms the inherent danger in dealing with these animals and why we need the Big Cat Public Safety Act to eliminate having them untracked in backyards around the country and ending up in sanctuaries where wonderful people like Candy Couser have committed themselves to providing care for those discarded by the pay to play industry.”

This comes weeks after Baskin competed in season 29 of “Dancing With The Stars,” and she was the second person eliminated. Baskin explained afterwards that she had competed on the show to raise awareness for her work with big cats.

“I want to shout out all of our fans who voted for Pasha and me,” she wrote in her final guest blog for ET, referring to her partner Pasha Pashkov. “Your votes are surely what kept me on the show for three episodes and each week resulted in being able to get the message out that we need to pass the Big Cat Public Safety Act this year.”

This piece originally appeared in UpliftingToday.com and is used by permission.

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