GROSSE TETE, La. — A Florida woman who was pinned to the ground by a camel outside a Louisiana truck stop last week told sheriff’s deputies that she bit the animal’s testicles to escape.
The woman and her husband stopped at the Tiger Truck Stop near Baton Rouge last Thursday to let their pet dog outside. During their visit, the dog entered the camel’s enclosure while chasing after pet treats which had been thrown in by the husband, The Advocate reported.
The male camel, known as “Caspar,” chased after the woman when she crawled into its pen under a barbed wire fence. It pinned her against a wall then sat on top of her, WBRZ reported.
“She said, ‘I bit his balls to get him off of me, I bit his testicles to get him off of me,” Iberville Parish deputy Louis Hamilton Jr. told The Advocate. “The camel did nothing wrong. They [the couple] were aggressive. The camel was doing its normal routine.”
“The camel has never been aggressive, the camel has never gotten out, never caused any issues,” the officer noted. The man and woman have not been identified, but police confirmed that they were cited for violating a leash law and criminal trespassing.
According to WAFB, the woman was transferred to a local hospital after escaping Caspar. The severity of her injuries was not immediately clear. Camels can reach more than seven feet tall and weigh up to 1,600 pounds, according to a fact-sheet published by National Geographic.
The Tiger Truck Stop’s manager, Pamela Bossier, told local media the man made the situation worse by making threatening gestures at the camel with his hat. She stressed that the couple should have asked for help in the stop’s restaurant, which she said is always staffed.
“First of all, they went and trespassed. After they trespassed then they proceed to antagonize something that big,” Bossier said, motioning toward the large animal.
“When you antagonize enough, they are going to strike back. It all could have been prevented with a few steps to the restaurant, there’s always employees and [it is] open 24 hours.”
The camel, which was not injured, has lived on the grounds of the Iberville Parish truck stop since last year, where the owners also keep a miniature horse and a baby kangaroo as part of a small petting zoo. The area was previously home to a tiger.
The Tiger Truck Stop owners were not cited as the enclosure included numerous signs warning citizens to stay out of the pen. When questioned by police about why he had hurled dog treats into the area, the husband claimed that he “wasn’t thinking,” The Advocate reported.
Grosse tete means “big head” in French.