Two individuals lost their lives last week at Cat Haven, a wildlife conservation facility in Dunlap, California. The sanctuary previously had 30 exotic cats on the property. A fatal lion attack on an intern left the facility with only 29 cats, and a family without their daughter.
On March 6, 2013 Dianna Hanson was found mauled to death in the enclosure of a four-year-old lion named Cous Cous, according to the LA Times. Coroners confirm Hanson died of a broken neck, which is thought to have happened when the lion pounced on her and possibly swiped her with his paw upon her entering the enclosure. The lion could not be led away from the intern, so he was shot to death when authorities arrived on the scene. The four-year-old lion had been at the facility since he was eight weeks old. Having grown up there, it was thought that he wouldn’t be “wild” as his natural instincts would have him act. This proved to be incorrect.
Being an intern for two months would mean that Hanson had more experience than the average person, but as animal expert Jack Hanna says, “They are wild animals, end of story… No matter what anyone says, they are wild animals.”
Hanson’s mother says that her love and devotion for big cats started at the age of seven when she adopted a Siberian tiger in her daughter’s name for her birthday, says ABC News. She graduated in 2011 with a degree in biology from Western Washington University and started an internship helping big cats at Cat Haven in January 2013, which was supposed to last six months.
Reports say that she and another worker were the only two people on the near 100 acre facility at the time of the attack and that Hanson was in the enclosure with the wild animal. It is still to be determined whether or not she was intentionally inside the enclosure or if they were in the same space by accident. As the LA Times states, “The usual method is to go into a small enclosure, leave the food, get out, then let the animals inside from a larger enclosure. According to the sanctuary’s guidelines, caregivers should never be inside with the big cats. Authorities would not say whether the lion was in the larger enclosure or the feeding area.” It is believed the lion entered the feeding section when he pushed open the improperly closed door separating him from the intern, according to Reuters.
It would not surprise me if the paw swipe that is thought to have possibly been the cause of Hanson’s broken neck was meant to be a playful gesture by Cous Cous. According to the Huffington Post, the lion weighed approximately 400 pounds, so there is no doubt that a playful swat could result in a broken neck.
I am currently a volunteer at Big Cat Rescue here in Tampa. We are accredited by the Global Federation of Sanctuaries, which in part means no person, new or old, makes any contact with any of our cats for any reason unless the animal is unconscious. We do not pet or come within close proximity to any cat who is awake at any time, for any reason. Having over 100 big exotic cats in our sanctuary and 55 acres for them to enjoy, we are the largest sanctuary in the world completely devoted to big cats with our founder, Carole Baskin, building a world famous safe haven sanctuary for its inhabitants.
Our feeding ritual is much like that of Cat Haven’s, where we have a small area for feeding which we call a “lock-out” that is blocked off from the cat. Once the food is placed inside, the separating door is lifted when the worker is a safe distance away from the animal, but at no time does the feeder actually enter the lock-out. Food is placed inside from being dropped or thrown in. When dealing with wild animals, especially cats with instincts as skilled hunters, it is not possible to eliminate the danger, but at Big Cat Rescue we do our best to make it as minimal as possible.
On the ABC News website I came across the article titled “Cat Haven, California Sanctuary Where Lion Attacked, to Reopen Sunday.” I was utterly appalled and outraged to see what was happening on a Good Morning America (GMA) interview at the top of this page. The video showed the interviewer being led into a tiger enclosure by the interviewee who is a self-proclaimed expert. This person, according to the video, is Dave Salmoney, and he may have a plethora of experience being around wild cats, but this GMA employee admits off the bat that he is petrified and has had no experience whatsoever. To even further the absurdity, Salmoney is seen hand feeding these wild animals, playing with them, kissing them on the face and reprimanding them as if they were domestic housecats.
This is 100 percent the wrong message to be showing. This puts the idea in people’s heads that these animals are safe, that these animals will not hurt you if you “show them who’s boss,” that you can have a special bond with animals, etc. In my opinion this is a blatantly audacious act that slights the victim and her family. Literally attached to the article about the woman who was mauled from being inside the enclosure with one of these wild animals, is a video of someone making it seem as if these animals are not wild and it is a light act to commit.
At Big Cat Rescue we do not touch the animals, but this is more for their benefit than for our safety. They are natural born killers with instincts that tell them you are prey and nothing more. Sure, they may purr when you’re around but we cannot ever be fooled to think that that means they are showing us admiration for anything more than someone who feeds them. Trying to associate human characteristics and feelings to an animal like a big cat is called anthropomorphization, according to Merriam Webster’s dictionary, and it is a main reason for the incorrect assumption that a wild animal can be your friend.
Our founder, Baskin says, “These animals are hardwired to be predators. Something will trigger that instinct.” To kill you is literally what they were born to do and to attempt to pet them or domesticate them would confuse them to no end. Having instincts pulling them in one direction and emotions in a separate direction, not to mention having personal interactions with big cats that are not in a safe sanctuary for life can cause them to trust humans more than they should and thus will be an easy target if they are put into canned hunts after exploiters get tired of keeping them around, according to BigCatRescue.org. Canned hunts are where the animal is put into a confined enclosure with no place to hide and people can pay upwards of $50 thousand to shoot the animal where it stands and take it home for a trophy. This is called “sport” to some people.
Living the lives they were born to live in the wild is our primary hope for these animals, but if they have been subjected to a life of human interaction, they can no longer be returned to their natural habitats. If they are confined to a life in captivity, a sanctuary that is accredited by the Global Federation of Sanctuaries is really the safest place for an animal to live. The mauling of an intern at Cat Haven in California is a true tragedy, but both her death and the death of the lion could have been easily avoided. Hopefully these individuals did not die in vain, and some education about big cat abuse issues can be spread throughout the world. Hanson was passionate about big cats, and according to the huffingtonpost.com, Hanson’s family says, “We know that first and foremost, Dianna would want the work that Cat Haven is doing to continue.”
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