It’s easy to see wild animals in places like zoos and aquariums and forget how dangerous they really can be. An elephant at a Texas zoo injured a zookeeper and now the zoo is being fined by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) because they did not report the incident to the administration and they failed to protect workers from hazards handling live animals, a serious violation.

A female zookeeper at the Fort Worth Zoo suffered a puncture wound from an elephant calf last September. The zookeeper went to the hospital and did not return to the zoo for five days.

OSHA cited the zoo for failing to protect workers from hazards of being struck-by or impaled while working with elephants. The zoo also received a violation for failing to report the hospitalization of their employee to the administration. The proposed penalties total $12,500.

In the wake of other recent elephant related injuries, activist groups say that there should be barriers between elephants and zoo workers that separate them and keep them safe. At this zoo, the only time zookeepers use barriers is when they are working with adult male elephants because they can sometimes be more aggressive than females and babies. In this case, a baby elephant was involved in the injury.

“Elephants are multi-ton wild animals and no amount of training is going to change that,” said Rachel Matthews, counsel for the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) issued new guidelines which will limit this kind of “free contact” that zookeepers can have with elephants. They allow more open access if a zookeeper is administering medical care but under most circumstances there will have to be barriers in place.

Some zoos who disagree with the Association’s guidelines have chosen to give up their AZA accreditation rather than follow the new guidelines.

The Fort Worth Zoo apparently has plans to build a new elephant exhibit but they are not discussing specific details. In a statement, they did indicate that they hope to meet with OSHA to discuss the report and the resulting violations.