{"id":773486,"date":"2026-07-02T04:02:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T04:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/773486\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T04:02:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T04:02:12","slug":"johnsons-of-old-hurst-family-of-boy-allegedly-thrown-into-crocodile-enclosure-at-zoo-speak-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/773486\/","title":{"rendered":"Johnsons of Old Hurst: Family of boy allegedly thrown into crocodile enclosure at zoo speak out"},"content":{"rendered":"

The devastated family of a young child allegedly thrown into a crocodile pen at a zoo have broken their silence.<\/p>\n

The horrifying scene unfolded 100 kilometres north of London at Johnsons of Old Hurst, a zoo, when a three-year-old boy was allegedly picked up and \u201cthrown\u201d into an animal enclosure by a man not known to him on June 18.<\/p>\n

Cambridgeshire Police attended the zoo in Huntingdon around 1pm to find he was attacked by at least one crocodile, according to the BBC<\/a><\/p>\n

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Zoo staff removed the child from the crocodile pen and he was given medical treatment at the scene before being rushed to hospital.<\/p>\n

On July 1, the boy\u2019s family released a statement, confirming that he was still in hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would like to thank the staff at the zoo who rescued our son from the enclosure,\u201d they wrote, as published by The Mirror<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are truly grateful for the public support and well-wishes we have received, as well as to everyone who has been directly involved in our son\u2019s care and recovery in hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur attention remains focused on his recovery and supporting him through this extremely challenging and prolonged period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police arrested a 30-year-old British man on suspicion of attempted murder soon after the incident.<\/p>\n

The man, reported to have learning disabilities, was released on bail after being deemed unfit for interview by the police.<\/p>\n

Police said they believed the man was not known to the child and he was visiting the zoo with carers.<\/p>\n

A GoFundMe page has been established by the boy\u2019s grandmother and has raised almost \u00a320,000 ($A38,538) in two days.<\/p>\n

In the description of the fundraiser, Lucky Lockett said the funds would help the family navigate the \u201cdifficult time\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter undergoing multiple surgeries, his condition is now stable, but he faces a long road to recovery,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis parents are currently by his side in hospital, supporting him through both immediate and ongoing care physically and psychologically.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Lockett said the child would require rehabilitation and donations would help support that, as well as providing financial stability for the family.<\/p>\n

Any excess money would be donated to the Addebrooke\u2019s Trust to help support \u201cother families facing similar challenges\u201d at the same hospital, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe family are deeply grateful for the kindness, prayers, and well wishes they have received,\u201d Ms Lockett wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey kindly ask that their son\u2019s privacy is respected and that he is not identified or named in the media or on social media.\u201d<\/p>\n

On its website, the zoo says it \u201chouses over 100 fascinating animals\u201d, including crocodiles, lions and a Bengal tiger.<\/p>\n

It is understood that the crocodile enclosure is housed in a converted cattle barn with elevated walkways.<\/p>\n

The website also laid out the family-owned farm\u2019s interest in conservation had led to a fascination with crocodiles.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are hoping to continue to develop our crocodile farm here at Johnsons of Old Hurst to be a part of this remarkable conservation effort,\u201d it read.<\/p>\n

It became the UK\u2019s first crocodile farm in 2006.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The devastated family of a young child allegedly thrown into a crocodile pen at a zoo have broken…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":773487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40,5429,1720],"class_list":["post-773486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-uk","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=773486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/773487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}