now here's a rock solid case in court...

[PalacePrincess]

you know, normally i'd feel sorry for people who are mauled by tigers, but this is just ridiculous. where do they think they are, the US? even judge judy would have a field day with this one!

***

Tiger attack left son in chronic pain

Witness can't tell court how animal got into car at African Lion Safari

TRACEY TYLER

(Nov 11, 2004)

A Stoney Creek photographer says the music stopped "completely'' in his family's home the day a tiger jumped through the window of his car at the African Lion Safari and mauled his accordion-playing son.

''In order to play, you've got to have good movement in your fingers,'' Ranko Balac testified in the Superior Court of Justice yesterday.

Balac's son, David, 31, and his former girlfriend, Jennifer-Anne Cowles, 28, are suing the Rockton, Ont., game park for injuries they suffered on April 19, 1996, when Paka, a 2.1-metre, 113-kilogram female Bengal tiger came through their passenger window.

David Balac had several surgeries and skin grafts and suffers chronic pain, memory loss and depression, court heard. His arm muscles were destroyed and nerves and tendons crushed and he developed an infection from bacteria in the tiger's saliva, Justice Jean MacFarland was told.

Cowles, who was pregnant at the time of the attack, says disfiguring scars on her right hip and scalp ended her career as an exotic dancer.

Ranko Balac, his wife, Slavka, and daughter Sandra, have also brought claims against the park under the Family Law Act, alleging David's injuries deprived them of his care and companionship and forced them to provide nursing and housekeeping services.

The African Lion Safari says Balac and Cowles ignored signs posted around the park warning them to keep their windows up and not to feed the animals.

David Balac, who was driving his father's 1988 Honda Prelude, conceded he might have hit the driver's side window button with his feet when he was struggling to free his arm from Paka's jaw.

But he said he knows the passenger side window was up when they entered the tiger preserve. Under cross-examination by Doug Wright, representing the African Lion Safari, Ranko Balac admitted that when he went to pick up his car the day after the attack, none of the windows appeared to be shattered.

"When you show up and see both windows are closed and don't appear to be damaged, you might wonder how tigers got into the car,'' Wright said.

''Yes, I ask myself how," Balac said.

"It would seem to be a bit of a mystery, wouldn't it?'' said Wright.

"I don't know how they got into the car,'' he said.

[h]

A Stoney Creek photographer says the music stopped "completely'' in his family's home the day a tiger jumped through the window of his car at the African Lion Safari and mauled his accordion-playing son.

Cowles, who was pregnant at the time of the attack, says disfiguring scars on her right hip and scalp ended her career as an exotic dancer.

uh... I wonder what their kid is going to do for a living when it grows up?

i wonder what kind of 'photographer' grampa is?

[StoneMtn]

Idiots. Gee, who woulda thought a tiger would attack if you drove into his den with an open window?