ATLANTA — A final report from the state Department of Natural Resources confirms human error was to blame for a snake’s escape from Zoo Atlanta last month.
The two-foot long tiger rattlesnake slipped out of quarantine on Aug. 27.
“A cage door was left unsecured,” Dr. Dwight Lawson, Ph.D, Deputy Director of Zoo Atlanta said last month. “The snake was able to get out of that.”
It was found dead Aug. 30 at an unoccupied Grant Park house. The property owner called the zoo after learning about the missing snake.
“Her husband, who apparently was working on renovating a house, had said that he had killed a snake on the property presumably the day before,” Lawson said.
The zoo issued a public apology and disciplined the employee responsible for the snake’s escape.
“The caretaker is an experienced professional,” Zoo Atlanta spokeswoman Keisha Hines said in a statement Tuesday. “Procedures for the handling of quarantined reptiles have already been adjusted and are being formally revised.”
The DNR made several suggestions for further securing zoo animals, which the zoo says will be in place by Oct. 11.