A model who was left permanently disfigured when a leopard repeatedly bit her face during a photoshoot has decided to go back to taking care of animals in need, saying she does not hold any ill-feeling over what happened to her.
As reported in German newspaper Bild, the model and animal rights activist Jessica Leidolph, 36, said: “Fortunately I have animals that need me. Helping them helps me.”
According to Bild, the number of animals under the model’s care is increasing almost daily. She said: “I’m currently looking after half a dozen small hedgehogs so they can get through the winter.”
Jessica’s largest patient is a swan, and the model, who hails from the town of Eisenberg in the German state of Thuringia, said: “He was probably attacked by a dog.
“Now we have to make sure he keeps the injured wing still so it heals well.”
It has been just over two months since Jessica was seriously injured by the 16-year-old leopard named Troja during a photoshoot in the town of Nebra in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt.
Jessica, who was airlifted from the show-animal retirement home to hospital to undergo surgery following the attack on 24th August, later described her ordeal, saying: “He bit into my cheek, ear, head, and then again and again into my head.”
Despite being told her scars would be permanent, Jessica, who had been taking care of orphaned and sick animals over the 16 years prior to the incident, said she would not hold any grudges against the 110-pound big cat, which she has been appealing for the authorities not to put down.
She said at the time of Troja, which had once appeared in a TV advert for Panasonic: “I don’t want the animal to be killed, it just followed its instincts.”
