Teen critically injured in Tiger attack

A 16-year-old was critically injured Monday after being mauled by three tigers at a Branson West attraction.

Dakota Ramel, an employee at the Interactive Zoo and Aquarium in Branson West — formerly known as Predator World — was attacked at 12:50 p.m. after he entered the tigers’ cage to take a picture for a customer.

“While in the pen with the tigers, one of the tigers jumped on the victim and knocked him to the ground,” Stone County Sheriff Richard Hill said in a news release. “At that point, two other tigers joined in the attack and drug the victim to a water pool.”

Other employees were able to hold the tigers back with a CO2 extinguisher and pulled the teen from the cage before emergency responders arrived, said Charlie Neubert, Chief of the Southern Stone County Fire Protection District, Branson West.

The attack occurred in front of visitors.

Ramel “suffered severe trauma to his neck, his airway and the back of his neck (and) a severe laceration to his leg,” Neubert said.

Ramel was airlifted to Cox South hospital in critical condition and was still in critical condition Monday night.

The wildlife area of the park closed after the attack, but it was not clear if the park would be closed today.

“I cannot close it down. We’re going to talk to the owners tomorrow,” Hill said. “… Missouri has loose laws as far as it goes with exotic animals.”

Hill said his office would continue the investigation today and didn’t “know what route we’ll go in terms of the animals.”

An employee at the park who answered the phone declined to comment on the incident. Other calls placed to the zoo went unanswered.

It is unclear when the business changed its name from Predator World to the Interactive Zoo and Aquarium. The Web site still refers to it as Predator World, but the phone line says Interactive Zoo and Aquarium.

The 11-acre attraction, located off Missouri 13, houses over 500 species — everything from white tigers to stingrays, according to a general recording on the phone line.

Over the years, there have been “minor” complaints about the facility, Hill said.

The attraction made headlines in February 2007 when a pregnant wolf and her mate broke out of an enclosure.

The wolves were located but not recaptured because the female was waiting to give birth. The male wolf was shot and killed by a local resident in April 2007.

The facility had previously been licensed and inspected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Missouri Department of Conservation.