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lion attack california: Cat kills female park intern In California (PHOTO)
Lion kills female park intern: investigation ongoing
A 26-year-old female intern was mauled to death by a lion while working at a private wild park located in central California. Dale Anderson, the Zoo owner revealed that the incidence happened on Wednesday when the victim was in the lion’s enclosure. He also clarified that a thorough investigation would be conducted because the zoo took all measures to ensure all the guests, animals and people working in the zoo are safe.
“She was at ease with those big cats,” Paul Hanson, a Seattle-area attorney, said of his daughter, Dianna Hanson, 24. “They liked her.”
Hanson told The Associated Press that he dropped his daughter off Jan. 2 at Cat Haven, about 45 miles east of Fresno.
“It was just a dream job for her,” he said, adding that she gave him a little tour and showed him the lion Cous Cous, which authorities said killed her.
Gregg Collins, a sergeant from the office of the Sherriff in Fresno County arrived at the scene of the accident after getting an emergency call. According to him, the victim was lying in the pen and was badly injured while the lion was still hovering around.
A park worker had unsuccessfully tried to lure the lion away from the victim into an adjacent pen. The lion was shot dead by the deputies so that they could rescue the injured woman. Unfortunately, she was declared dead on the scene of the accident.
Couscous, the 4-year-old African male lion that attacked the woman had been brought up in the Cat Haven Park from a young age. This is according to Tanya Osegueda, the Project Survival spokeswoman, which is the non-profit organization that runs this exotic animal park.
Nicole Paquette, vice president of the Human Society of the United States, voiced concerns. “She should have never been in the enclosure with him,” Paquette said of the victim. “These are big cats that are extremely dangerous, and they placed a volunteer in the actual cage with a wild animal. That should have never happened.”
Officials at another sanctuary, Big Cat Rescue in Tampa, Florida, told the the Guardian, in 2012 that at least 21 people, including five children, had been killed and 246 mauled by exotic cats in the US since 1990. Over that period 254 cats escaped and 143 were killed.
Just last year, a keeper at a zoo in the western German city of Cologne was mauled to death by a tiger.
Police said the animal wandered through a gate that had apparently not been shut properly. It reached an adjacent storage building, where it attacked and killed the 43-year-old woman.
The tiger was then shot dead by the director of the zoo through a skylight, before it could get to public areas.
On The Web:
Lion kills intern at animal park in California
http://www.itv.com/news/2013-03-07/lion-kills-intern-at-animal-park-in-california/
Lion kills intern at California animal sanctuary
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/06/california-person-killed-by-lion
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/lion-kills-person-california-animal-sanctuary-18669857