RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The victim eventually made it to the hospital eight hours later.
He said he was on horseback when he spotted a dead pig in the woods. He dismounted, and the jaguar “jumped” on his back, causing four punctures.
Diego Ruiz, the doctor in charge of attending to the 58-year-old man saved by five dogs when attacked by a jaguar, said the victim had four perforations on his back and was only able to get to the hospital in the city of Porto Murtinho, eight hours later.
“He said that when he looked back, he saw the jaguar, and remembers that when he woke up, he was on his stomach feeling the animal’s paws on his back,” he recalls.
According to Ruiz, the victim was on a farm far outside town and lost a significant amount of blood as a result of his injuries.
He was hospitalized in the city center and was released the same day, last Sunday, July 14th.
“He reported becoming dizzy after the attack, and as a result of bleeding, he had difficulty getting back on the horse. There were four punctures, and each required three stitches,” he explained to G1.
The man has been tested and will need antibiotics. “As the jaguar’s claw has contact with many prey, there is a high risk of infection,” says the doctor.
The victim reported to the doctor that he was on horseback followed by his dogs when he passed by a forest and sensed a foul odor, after which he dismounted and spotted a dead pig.
According to Ruiz, the man said that the dogs started barking and distracting the animal, which ended up running away. He had never been attacked by animals on the farm before.
The jaguar attacked because it is protecting its food, says PMA.
According to Colonel Queiroz of the Environmental Police (PMA), on two other occasions, farm workers who went to check out a foul odor were also attacked by jaguars, as these animals usually protect their food: “It kills its prey; then it keeps feeding and watching over the meat. This is when it may attack a person because the jaguar does not perceive an adult human being as prey, it tends to move away, but to protect its food or its young, it may attack,” he explains.
Leonardo Avelino, president of the NGO Panthera, explains that the jaguar may have perceived the presence of the five dogs as “competition” for the food it was protecting.
“Jaguars usually get aggressive by the proximity of dogs, the reason for the attack may have been their very presence,” he says.