Zyair Dennis, Millville, N.J woman identified as woman seen on surveillance video jumping over animal enclosure at Cohanzick zoo and taunting tiger and nearly having her hand bitten off.
New Jersey police have arrested a woman seen in surveillance video brazenly jumping a zoo fence and nearly having her hand bitten off by a Siberian tiger as she sought to ‘pet’ the wild animal in a an antic nearly gone horribly wrong last week.
Zyair J. Dennis, 24, of Millville, following her arrest was charged with defiant trespassing along with violating two city ordinances after she climbed the fence at the Cohanzick Zoo and stuck her hand inside the tiger’s enclosure, Bridgeton Police announced Monday in a statement.
The 24 year old woman’s arrest follows alarming footage of the Denns’ antics on August 18th.
Authorities are looking for a woman seen on camera hopping a fence and taunting a tiger at a New Jersey zoo to the point where she nearly got herself bit sticking her hand through the wire enclosure, officials say. https://t.co/itOVP3hTMM pic.twitter.com/Uf5Ek7BSEj
— NBC4 Washington (@nbcwashington) August 21, 2024
After taking what looks like a curious sniff, the tiger lunges toward Dennis and appears to try to bite her hand, which she quickly jerks back, before putting her hand out again for a moment. Yes I know kids, crazy is krazeeh.
Seemingly satisfied, Dennis then walks slowly away and hops back over the wooden fence.
A sign posted at the enclosure reads, ‘Do not climb over the fence. Climbing over any zoo fence is against city ordinance 247-C.’
But there’s more.
Police said they also had video which allegedly showed Dennis pulling a similar stunt in a bear cage that day, which was adjacent to the tiger enclosure, where that wild animal was also taunted by Dennis.
Authorities had urged anyone with information about the fence-hopper’s whereabouts to send an anonymous tip through its website.
The suspect will be scheduled to appear in Bridgeton Municipal Court next month according to police.
