Caretaker: Woman Attacked by Lynx in Buckhead Shouldn't Have Been in Enclosure

The woman who was attacked and injured by a Eurasian lynx at a home in Buckhead earlier this week should never have entered the cat’s enclosure, a caretaker told WXIA-TV.

Rachel Hightower, 21, was inside the lynx’s enclosure attempting to feed the animal on Tuesday afternoon when the exotic cat clawed her on the head. A friend of Hightower’s called 911 and said that she was bleeding heavily from her head, and that the cat was inside its cage.

David Laws, who WXIA-TV reports is the lynx’s caretaker, told the station that Hightower was allowed on the property in the 3700 block of Paces Valley Road but did not follow proper protocols when she entered the enclosure to feed the animal. Laws added that Hightower was ”fine” in the aftermath of the incident.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on Wednesday that the lynx’s owner, Frank Boyajian, is a licensed wild animal breeder who has operated in the city since 1977 and currently owns nine exotic cats.

Despite Boyajian’s decades of experience, some of his exotic animals have managed to escape their enclosures and wander around Buckhead, upsetting locals.

In June of 2006, the AJC reported that one of Boyajian’s African serval cats had escapedfrom the home and had been missing for about a week. The AJC also reported that in June of 2004, a lynx owned by Boyajian disappeared for two weeks before he was able to recapture it. A neighbor told WXIA-TV that there have been no less than six escapes in recent years.

Boyajian won a federal lawsuit in 2009 against the City of Atlanta after the city had tried to enforce its business license ordinance on Boyajian.

“I refuse to be run-off by municipal intimidation or financial impracticality in my retirement years,” Boyajian wrote in a message posted on an exotic cat owners’ website.

“This lawsuit will have ramifications nationwide as the issues involved are similar to many others, past and present, where governments have attempted to arbitrarily marginalize or deny citizens of their right to own exotics [sic] animals.”