A zoo employee is recovering in a hospital after being bitten and
scratched by a big cat Saturday. Zoo officials say the lion took
advantage of a door that was mistakenly left unlocked.
WFAA
When a Dallas Zoo handler failed to secure a door inside the Giants of the Savanna lion exhibit, one of the big cats pounced on the mistake.
They were born in and have lived their lives in captivity, but their instincts are purely wild. So when a handler failed to secure a door inside the Giants of the Savanna lion exhibit, one of the big cats pounced on the mistake, violently engaging the zookeeper. "There was a puncture wound on his back and he had some scratches," said Gregg Hudson, the zoo's president and CEO.
The keeper had to fire off pepper spray to stop the attack and get to safety. The zoo employee is now recovering at a hospital. "Unfortunately, when you have humans involved in things like this, human error happens... and that's what happened in this case," Hudson said. "We are very fortunate that he has pepper spray on him all the time and was able to use that to make sure this wasn't any worse than it was."
Zoo officials stress this all happened out of the view of the public, unlike the last high profile attack at the exhibit last November, when a male lion grabbed a lioness in his pride by the head and suffocated her while visitors looked on "At first you think they're playing; then you realize he's killing her, and you're watching it," said Michael Henshaw, who was a witness to the November attack. "You just can't believe your eyes."
That lion was a different animal than the cat that went on the attack this weekend.
The lioness involved in Saturday's attack was sedated, but will go back on exhibit — although it may be kept from public view on Sunday. The lion exhibit, though — with the rest of the pride — will be open for visitors on Sunday.
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