Man Mauled After Teen Spooks Tiger at Fair

The owner of a wildlife sanctuary was injured by a 350-pound Siberian tiger that was startled by a 14-year-old boy at a county fair in St. Augustine, officials said.

Curt LoGiudice jumped between the tiger and the boy, who was knocked to the ground with LoGiudice.

St. Johns County Sheriff’s deputies shot the animal with stun guns to get it to release LoGiudice, who kept his grip on the tiger’s leash and was able to calm it down and take it back to his animal sanctuary in Jacksonville before driving himself to a hospital to be treated for puncture wounds to his face and head.

The boy walked up and “made a sudden move,” and the tiger knocked LoGiudice and the boy to the ground and bit and clawed at them, according to a report by Deputy Jerry Montague.