The incident turned Balac, a once outgoing student and accomplished accordion player, So it wasn't all bad.
Posted on 11/11/2004 12:50:05 PM PST by PoliticalInsider
TORONTO -- A former college student says blood was "squirting like crazy" and he thought his girlfriend was dead after a tiger "jumped into the car" and attacked them during an afternoon drive through the African Lion Safari. "I noticed a paw. At the same time I noticed a paw, the window came down," David Balac, 31, told the Superior Court of Justice yesterday. "That's when the tiger jumped over ... and grabbed me. He bit down on my arm really hard and tried to pull me outside the car."
Balac and his former girlfriend, Jennifer-Anne Cowles, 28, are suing the popular Rockton, Ont. game park for damages stemming from the injuries they sustained during their trip on April 19, 1996.
In a statement of defence filed with the court, the African Lion Safari and Game Farm Ltd. says Balac and Cowles enticed the tigers with gestures and food and neglected to keep the car windows closed. Balac's father, who owned the car, also failed to keep it in proper working order and Balac himself ought to have known it was prone to stalling.
The incident turned Balac, a once outgoing student and accomplished accordion player, into an unemployable recluse, while Cowles's disfiguring scars and lingering anxiety from the attack have all but ended her career as an exotic dancer, the court was told.
Balac said he managed to pull his arm free through a gap where the tiger was missing some teeth.
"I fell back onto my seat ... and I could see my bones. There was blood squirting really fast," he said.
Meanwhile, the tiger had Cowles's scalp in its jaw and was attempting to drag her out the passenger window, Balac said.
He told Justice Jean MacFarland that since his hands "were all bleeding and cut," he began banging his head against the car's steering column to blow the horn.
Meanwhile, he noticed the driver's side window was down and there were two more tigers beside him, fighting to get inside the 1988 Honda Prelude.
There were actually three tigers at the driver's side, the court was told.
Cowles is suing for $2.2 million in damages on behalf of herself, her two sons and her mother.
Balac is seeking $1 million.
Oh Canada...
8 years later, they're suing.
Does Canuckistan have a statute of limitations?
Did they think they were feeding ducks on a pond or something? Morons!
Dude - that was like 8 years ago...Did the trial lawyers take that much time to get up there
The incident turned Balac, a once outgoing student and accomplished accordion player, So it wasn't all bad.
I'm sorry if I seem callous, but this sentence made me LOL.
i am guessing that this occurred during a time when hockey was not being played in canada....
Darwin award honorable mention.
A dilapatdated car, an accomplished accordion player and a stripper ping!
If Darwinism worked better, these two wouldn't have lived.
If you're too stupid to roll up your windows while driving by tigers, the zoo should be able to sue you for the value of the tigers they will have to put down.
And I'm sure the accordion has nothing do do with his lack of a social life.....
while Cowles's disfiguring scars and lingering anxiety from the attack have all but ended her career as an exotic dancer, the court was told.
Gosh -- do you suppose she was going to remain an exotic dancer for the rest of her life? Perhaps Ms. Cowles should be grateful for the opportunity to get a real job sooner rather than later.
ah personal responsibility... gotta love it.
That paragraph alone would make a great episode of Arrested Development.
The world needs more accomplished accordian players.
If it's Canada, they probably had to wait 8 years for rationed, socialized legal services.
I visited there, didn't see any tigers. I wonder if they mean lions. I wonder if they know the difference.
ROFL
Two idiots, hungry lions, and a 1988 Honda Prelude.
Does it get any better? (maybe if they were Democrats...)
Too bad he wasn't also a promising mime.
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