Officials equipped to handle animal attacks

Area officials determine how to respond to animal attacks on a case-by-case basis, they said, in the after-math of an incident Saturday at the Cincinnati Zoo where a gorilla was shot and killed when it grabbed a 3-year-old boy.
A special response team shot and killed a 17-year-old gorilla that grabbed a boy after the child climbed a barrier and fell into the zoo’s gorilla exhibit, The Associated Press reported.
The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has a trained group of people, including biologists, law enforcement officers and agents trained specifically to respond to animal attacks throughout the state, Large Carnivore Program Manager Maria Davidson said.
“We would make decisions upon how to get our hands on that animal based on individual situations,” Davidson said. “All situations are different.”
Responders would handle an attack that occurs in someone’s backyard differently than an attack deep in a forest, Davidson said. Wildlife and Fisheries has guidelines in place “to make decisions based on reality,” Davidson said.
The first and biggest concern for wildlife agents is to secure the safety of the victim or victims involved, Davidson said. After taking care of the victim and securing the scene, officials would “move on to other high priority items,” which may include shooting the animal, tracking it down, trapping it or containing the animal in some other way, Davidson said.
The Wildlife and Fisheries response team is generally focused in areas that have black bears, but the training responders go through could apply to any attack, Davidson said.
The most common type of animal attack the St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office deals with is dog bites, Sheriff’s Office Spokeswoman Traci Landry said.
“Our ultimate goal is always going to be to resolve it with no injuries to human or animal, but human life, in general, is going to trump animal life,” Landry said.
Parish law requires that an attacking dog be brought to the parish shelter for a certain amount of time to ensure it doesn’t have diseases, Landry said.
If a dog is deemed vicious, the owner may be cited for having a vicious animal. Usually the owner is allowed to reclaim the animal from the shelter, she said.
Morgan City Police Animal Warden Desiree LaCoste said she will usually have an officer accompany her if she’s responding to an animal attack because she doesn’t carry any weapons on the job.
An officer would likely try to Taser the animal first, LaCoste said. Officers would only shoot the animal if they absolutely have to as a last resort. However, LaCoste has never responded to an attack where officers had to shoot an animal.