I imagine they do this all the time and think it's no big deal. But what if the trainer happens to trip and fall? I mean it could happen. Look at Sigfried and Roy with their tiger magic act. They had done thousands of shows with no incident but then Roy fell onstage (possibly from a stroke) and the tiger mauled him.
@Arizona Docent It’s happened before. A male Saltwater crocodile dragged Wes Mannion into the pool and only released him after Steve jumped on him. Without his intervention, it surely would have been a fatal incident. On a more trivial scale, several lawnmowers have been lost to crocs during exhibit maintenance. Presumably the staff try to avoid the croc grabbing the lawnmower in the interest of keeping equipment costs to a minimum, yet it still happens.
