When an exotic pigeon nearly bit off a toddler’s finger in an aviary at the Baton Rouge Zoo in 2022, BREC had no way of knowing the bird was dangerous, because it had never exhibited signs of aggression before, a judge determined on Thursday.
Baton Rouge District Judge Will Jorden listened to arguments from the parks system as well as rebuttals from a plaintiff attorney representing the toddler’s family.
At the end of the hearing inside the 19th Judicial District Courthouse, Jorden sided with BREC and dismissed the family’s lawsuit.
“I think it was close. But close is not the absolute answer. It has to be on point,” Jordan said in granting BREC’s summary judgment motion.
State law says a plaintiff must show that an animal owner had knowledge of a previous attack by the animal in order to hold the owner liable for any subsequent attacks. It is a legal principle colloquially known as the “first bite rule.”
That bite occurred Jan. 26, 2022, when a Victoria crowned pigeon attacked a 2-year-old girl in an enclosed bird sanctuary open to the public.
Jessi and Urian “Ryan” Clements filed suit against BREC in January 2023 on behalf of their daughter. The parents sued for damages and thousands of dollars in medical expenses, alleging that gross negligence by zoo officials at the wildlife park led to the unprovoked attack.
According to the court records, a family nanny took the Clements’ daughter and two sons to the zoo for a “fun” outing. As the group was walking through the zoo’s Asian Aviary, a medium-sized bird ran up to the toddler and, unprovoked, bit the middle finger on her left hand.
Family members who witnessed the attack described the pigeon as a bluish-gray bird — about the size of a large Shih Tzu dog — with red eyes and a sharp beak. They said it began squawking and making territorial noises, then fanned its wings out before it went into “attack mode” and charged toward the toddler, according to court records.
The bite wound was down to the tendon past the first knuckle on the child’s finger. Her older siblings had to wrestle her hand from the bird’s grip, and relatives rushed the girl to the Lane Regional Medical Center emergency room in Zachary, where she underwent surgery. Doctors restitched her detached fingertip.
During Thursday’s hearing, plaintiff attorney Collins Meredith accused the zoo’s bird curator, Lee Shoen, of willfully ignoring red flags that the Victoria crowned pigeon species had “dangerous propensities.”
He told the judge that Shoen admitted during his deposition that such a pigeon had snipped at him in the past. BREC lawyers noted that Shoen never implied it was either of the two Victoria crowned pigeons housed at the Baton Rouge Zoo on the day of the toddler attack. But Meredith insisted zoo officials failed to take action to prevent such an incident.
“You cannot put your head in the sand and pretend that something is not a problem when it is,” he said. “He knew that these birds could get aggressive. He could have done something about it … But he didn’t.”
Robert Schmidt, one of the attorneys for BREC, countered that 17 years of zoo records showed just seven instances of the pigeons chasing or pecking at other birds at the zoo, and there were no documented accounts of any threats or attacks on humans.
There were no zoological records of dangerous or aggressive behavior for the two particular Victoria crowned pigeons roaming the aviary the day of the attack.
Schmidt said zoo officials didn’t fail to protect zoo patrons because there were no signs of danger. He argued the Clements could not show evidence that the birds were “unreasonably dangerous” prior to the incident.
“The history of these birds was they they’d never attacked or bitten anybody, so that showing simply cannot be made,” Schmidt said.
Jorden, the judge, said his decision came down to the zoo caretakers’ awareness of any violent behavior from the birds. He determined there were “no genuine issues of material fact” to sustain the plaintiffs’ allegations.
“There is an absolute test for these things,” he told the Clements’ attorney. “I don’t think you met the burden in this case to show that (Shoen) knew or should have known that this Victorian crown pigeon — this one in particular — displayed aggressive tendencies toward people.
“I’m not saying that child asked to be a victim,” he added later. “My heart goes out to that baby. It was a horrible incident ... But I just don’t think that the law was on your side in this case.”
