News footage of the wolf enclosure at Hershey's ZooAmerica park in Hershey, Pa. (WHTH).
A Pennsylvania toddler suffered minor injuries after police said he stuck his hand inside a wolf enclosure at the zoo. His parents were allegedly "paying attention to their cellphones" at the time.
Stephen Wilson, 61, and Carrie Sortor, 43, were both charged with a misdemeanor count of endangering the welfare of a child on Saturday. According to the Derry Township Police Department, the couple's 17-month-old son was "unsupervised" when he "squeezed through a small opening in a wooden barrier perimeter fence" at the wolf enclosure at Hershey's ZooAmerica park in Hershey, Pennsylvania. A wolf approached the little boy — who stuck his hand through the metal fence around the enclosure — and "instinctively and naturally" took the boy's hand in its mouth.
Meanwhile, Wilson and Sortor were allegedly sitting on a bench 25 to 30 feet away, looking at their phones.
Police said Wilson and Sortor walked to a seating area almost 30 feet away from the wolf enclosure while their toddler wandered off toward the exhibit. Wilson and Sortor then sat on the bench, where they were "paying attention to their cellphones" until they heard a "commotion."
That commotion, police said, was the sound of bystanders at the zoo who pulled the little boy away from the wolf.
According to a statement from a spokesperson for Hershey Entertainment and Resorts that was provided to local ABC affiliate WHTH, the boy was never actually inside the wolf enclosure. The statement read, "Our habitats are designed with multiple layers of protection, and clear signage and barriers are in place to help ensure safe viewing. Guests are expected to remain within designated areas and closely supervise children at all times."
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Local NBC affiliate WGAL had more of the statement from Hershey Entertainment and Resorts, which said that after reviewing the alleged incident, it was determined that the boy "was able to crawl under an exterior perimeter fence, travel to the primary metal enclosure surrounding the wolf habitat, and put his hand through that fence. A wolf approached and made contact with the child's hand. This type of response is consistent with natural animal behavior and was not a sign of aggression."
The spokesperson described the boy's injuries as minor.
Court dates for Sortor and Wilson were not publicly available.