Cous Cous the lion, who was shot dead after killing a
worker at the Cat Haven Sanctuary in Dunlap, California.
REUTERS/Aimee Zundell/Handout
An African lion has attacked and killed an employee of a
private wildlife sanctuary in central California, law
enforcement officials say.
Deputies responding to reports of an injured person at Cat
Haven in Dunlap, California, found a severely wounded person
inside the lion enclosure, Fresno County Sheriff's spokesman
Lieutenant Robert Miller said.
"We don't know what happened leading up to the attack because
there were no witnesses," Miller said.
Following the attack, another employee tried to distract the
adult male lion away from the victim and into another
enclosure but those attempts failed, the sheriff's department
said in a written statement.
"Deputies shot and killed the lion to provide medical
attention to the victim. The victim died at the scene," the
sheriff's department said.
Authorities did not immediately identify the victim.
Representatives for Cat Haven, a 100-acre sanctuary that is
run by the group Project Survival in Dunlap, about 40 miles
east of Fresno, could not immediately be reached for comment
by Reuters. The facility, which is located just outside of
King's Canyon National Park, was closed on Wednesday.
The Fresno Bee, citing a spokeswoman for the facility,
reported that the victim was a 26-year-old woman who had been
working there as a volunteer intern and who had entered the
lion's enclosure before the attack.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with her and her family at this
critical time," Cat Haven founder Dale Anderson told the
newspaper.
Several condolence messages were left on Project Survival's
Facebook page. One person expressed sympathy for the loss of
the employee and for a lion named "Cous Cous."
A 4-year-old male lion identified as "Cous Cous" is pictured
on Cat Haven's website.
Janice Mackey, a spokeswoman for the California Department of
Fish and Wildlife, said a necropsy would be performed on the
lion to determine if it suffered from any health problems
that could have led to the attack.
Anderson founded Cat Haven in 1993 "to exhibit a variety of
wild cats and engage public support for their conservation in
the wild via specific projects," according to the park's
website.
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