The parents of a toddler who suffered a minor injury at a Pennsylvania theme park zoo after squeezing through a fence near a wolf enclosure and making contact with one of the animals have been charged with endangering the welfare of children, police said.
Evidence showed that the parents both walked about 8 to 9 metres away from the child to a seating area with benches and appeared to be paying attention to their cellphones when they noticed what was happening shortly before noon Saturday at ZooAmerica in the Hersheypark theme park, police said in a statement.
The child went through a small opening in a wooden barrier perimeter fence and entered a restricted area near the wolf exhibit, Derry Township Police said. The child reached a chain-link fence enclosure and was hurt after placing a hand through it.
“From the injuries sustained, it appears as though one of the wolves in the enclosure instinctively and naturally grabbed onto the child’s hand with its mouth. Several bystanders intervened and helped pull the child away,” police said in the statement.
The parents await a preliminary hearing later this month on the misdemeanor charge. Messages seeking comment were left with the father's lawyer Tuesday; it was not clear who represents the mother.
Dauphin County District Attorney Fran Chardo said the decision to file a criminal charge was carefully considered.
“We looked at a lot of factors — the age of the child, the circumstances, how diligent you have to be because it’s potentially dangerous,” Chardo said in a phone interview.
“We looked at it closely,” he said.
ZooAmerica North American Wildlife Park is part of the sprawling entertainment complex in Hershey, which features a chocolate-theme amusement park. The zoo’s website says it has three gray wolves.
A spokesperson for the zoo said in a statement that the boy, who is a year and a half old, crawled under an exterior perimeter fence and put his hand through “the primary metal enclosure surrounding the wolf habitat.”
“A wolf approached and made contact with the child’s hand. This was not a forceful or aggressive action, but rather a brief, investigatory behaviour consistent with how wild canines interact with unfamiliar objects in their environment,” the zoo said.
Wolves use their mouths much as humans use their hands, the zoo said, and they check out unfamiliar objects by mouthing them.
The zoo said the boy’s injuries were “minor, surface-level,” and the animal is up-to-date on vaccinations and remains in the exhibit.
Derry Township Police Chief Garth W. Warner said he was not sure how long the parents’ attention was distracted.
“There are plenty of opportunities for a child of that age to hurt themselves on things,” Warner said. “Let alone, be left alone, essentially by themselves, where they could get themselves into a situation like this child did.”
Hersheypark made headlines last summer when a lost boy wandering on a monorail line was rescued by a park visitor who climbed onto a building and jumped onto the rails. The child was unharmed and reunited with his family.
