On Wednesday,Dianna Hanson the 24-year-old woman who had been volunteering as part of a six-month internship at Cat Haven sanctuary in Dunlap as an intern was tragically attacked when she entered the male African lion’s enclosure at an exotic animal park in California, Cat Haven Zoo.
According to Fresno County sheriff’s Lt. Bob Miller, Sheriff’s deputies found her severely injured and still lying inside the enclosure with the lion nearby.
Miller said, that the Park workers couldn’t allow another chance to the lion, so deputies shot and killed it. But the woman died at the scene.
Quite sadly, Paul Hanson, a Seattle-area attorney, identified the victim as his daughter Dianna Hanson.
Mr. Hanson told that She was very excited and that it was just a dream job for her.
In fact, she was absolutely fearless.
Moreover, Cat Haven founder and executive director Dale Anderson was crying as he read a one-sentence statement about the fatal shock at the private zoo while he was extending his thoughts and prayers to the victim's family. He added that he has operated Cat Haven since 1993 and that they take every precaution to ensure the safety of their staff, animals and guests.
According to Tanya Osegueda, a spokeswoman for Project Survival the non-profit that operates the animal park that the lion was a 4-year-old male named Cous Cous, had been raised at Cat Haven since it was a cub.
Sheriff’s Sgt. Greg Collins said that the facility is normally closed on Wednesdays, and only one other worker was there.
Cat Haven has housed numerous big cats, including tigers, leopards and other exotic species and that it is regulated as a zoo by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
As the fact remains, results of the last 13 USDA inspections show no violations dating back to March 2010 except the most recent inspection was Feb. 4.
To conclude, according to the officials at another big cat sanctuary, Big Cat Rescue in Florida, last year at least 21 people, including five children, have been killed and 246 hammered by exotic cats in the United States since 1990 and over that period, 254 cats escaped while 143 were killed.
It's really mournful hearing the death of the young ambitious girl who was so passionate about her dream job.
This makes it prevalent fact that a wild animal is always wild...and no one has control over it's mind!
(AW:Samrat Biswas)
