Little Boy Injured by Tiger Undergoes Rabies Shots

July 27, 2006 03:03 AM EDT

Attorneys for the 4-year-old boy injured by a tiger at the Saratoga County Fair say he must undergo rabies shots.

The shots began Wednesday for young Riley Willard, who received 14 stitches on his forehead after a Bengal tiger reached through the bars of its cage and swiped his forehead.

Even though the tiger had its rabies vaccination, attorney Daniel Dagostino says the boy will take the shots as a precaution.

“So the only alternative they’ve left Riley with is this treatment which involves five shots,” says Dagostino, with Martin, Harding & Mazzotti, LLP.

NEWS10 spoke with the Health Department in Schenectady County, who say the shots are probably not necessary. They say the animal would have probably been dead by now had it been infected with rabies and acting erratically.

As for the petting zoo owner, the New York State Department of Conservation fined Jeff Ash of the Ashville Game Farm 250 dollars.