Several months after the Pennsylvania Game Commission relaxed rules on human-wild animal interaction in petting zoos and other attractions, an employee at a Harrisburg area wildlife park was gored by a bison.

That incident was enough for a Philadelphia lawmaker to decide to try to restore the state’s old regulations to better protect the public from potentially dangerous wildlife.

“Wild animals are not pets; their intrinsic instincts are exactly that – wild – which makes them unpredictable,” Rep. Joseph Hohenstein, a Democrat, wrote in a memo to fellow senators. “Close human contact with wild animals can and does harm both animals and people interacting with them. In addition to bites and scratches, wild animals can spread viral, bacterial, fungal and parasitic infections that pose serious health risks to people.”