Streamwood woman mauled by tiger to start rehab
Marissa Dub, the 2008 Streamwood High School graduate mauled by a tiger June 21 at an Indiana exotic animal care facility, is expected to begin inpatient rehabilitation next week.
The progress of Dub’s recovery was reported Wednesday by the staff at another Indiana animal sanctuary where she’d previously interned.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service continues its investigation of the attack at the Exotic Feline Rescue Center in Center Point, Ind., where Dub has worked as a keeper since graduating from Southern Illinois University in May 2012.
Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Tanya Espinosa said there is no update or time frame for the investigation.
While the investigation is ongoing, the staff at the Exotic Feline Rescue Center has been unable to comment on Dub’s injury.
But the staff at the Black Pine Animal Sanctuary in Albion, Ind., where Dub previously interned, posted an update on their Facebook page Wednesday.
“We are happy to report that Marissa Dub, the former BPAS intern critically injured by a tiger at another facility where she was working recently, is on the mend!” the post reads.
“Her family reports she is making progress each day and getting stronger, enabling doctors to assess her needs. They anticipate she will move to an inpatient rehab facility next week. We appreciate all the outpouring of concern many have shown for this very dedicated young woman. Thank you.”
Within a few days of the attack, Dub was upgraded from critical to fair condition at Wishard Memorial Hospital in Indianapolis, about 65 miles northeast of the Exotic Feline Rescue Center.
Hospital spokeswoman Natalie Moya said Wednesday that information on Dub’s condition was no longer accessible.
Officials reported that Dub was attacked while cleaning a tiger cage at the rescue center June 21.
Joe Taft, the director of the rescue center he established in 1991, described the incident as an accident.
Workers are never allowed direct contact with the animals, and all the cages have shift areas where the animals are confined when workers enter to feed them and clean the cages. The door to the shift area was not closed in this instance, Taft said.
The rescue center is a refuge for big cats that have been abused, abandoned or otherwise made homeless.