A woman was killed by a lion at a private wild animal park in Central California. Local authorities are trying to figure out what might have caused the lion to fatally attack this intern-volunteer, according to Xfinity News on Wednesday, March 6, 2013. The lion mauled the woman as she entered the lion enclosure.
The founder and executive director of Cat Haven was in tears as he read the one-sentence statement about the fatal mauling. Dale Anderson said that the "26-year-old intern was attacked and killed when she entered the lion's cage.” The distraught Anderson refused to offer any more details of the mauling and he would not answer any questions from reporters.
Cat Haven is in Dunlap, California about 45 miles east of Fresno. When authorities responded to the 911 call they found the woman still laying in the lion enclosure critically injured, with the lion nearby. Another employee's attempts to lure the lion away and into another enclosure so the parimedics could get to her, were to no avail. This left the deputies no other choice but to shoot and kill the 4-year-old African Lion, named Couscous. The woman's injuries were so severe that she died on the scene.
The lion was raised from a cub at the Cat Haven facility, which is a 100-acre sanctuary that opened in 1993. The privately owned zoo and sanctuary houses numerous big cats, which includes tigers, leopards and other exotic species.
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