Jose Navarrete is being held on $ 100,000 bond on charges of cruelty to children.
A father was arrested after allegedly breaking into the elephant show at the San Diego Zoo while carrying his 2-year-old daughter.
José Navarrete, 25, carried his daughter through two fences, one of which was electrified, to the elephant enclosure at the zoo at around 4pm on Friday, police said.
The elephants in the enclosure were upset when the two entered their space, the police told KGTV, a local San Diego ABC affiliate.
Seeing the animals’ reaction, Navarrete fled the exhibition with his daughter and dropped her while he left, police said.
The San Diego Zoo said in a statement to ABC News that two people “intentionally and illegally invaded a habitat, which is home to our Asian and African elephants”.
The zoo’s security team responded to the incident, but people had already left the habitat when they arrived, the zoo said.
Navarette has been arrested and is on $ 100,000 bail on charges of cruelty to children, according to prison records. It is not clear whether he maintained legal representation at this time.
Zoo officials said the elephants, Navarrete and their daughter were not injured in the incident.
Matthew Fuhrman of ABC News contributed to this report.