I usually do not do this, but trust me, the story was worth a "copy and paste" moment, enjoy, till tomorrow, when I get to bring to you, my T.G.I.F article, as always, see y'all later alligators (oops!, I better stop using that phrase, now that a Lion has done the thinkable), we usually imagine things like this, but here it is real, live and direct. Be kind to one another.
It was clear that Dianna Hanson was
thrilled to be at the Cat Haven sanctuary. Her Facebook page boasted
more pictures of lions and tigers than it did of her friends.
Worker mauled to death at California sanctuary by her favorite lion
DIANA HANSON |
Hanson had been at the
100-acre wooded Northern California facility since January -- working as
an intern, bonding with the big cats it's home to.
On a Facebook photo of her petting a tiger cub, a friend commented, "You have met your calling."
"My calling," Hanson jokingly responded, "drools on my pants."
On Wednesday, the
24-year-old Seattle woman was killed when she was mauled by a
5-year-old, 350-pound African lion inside a cage.
Hanson's grieving father said the lion, Cous Cous, was one of her favorites.
The sanctuary did not
release details of why Hanson was in the lion's cage, but said it would
investigate whether safety protocols were followed.
The Fresno County
Sheriff's Office said that when the lion attacked, another employee at
the sanctuary tried to distract him away from Hanson into another
enclosure. "But all attempts failed," it said.
A sheriff's deputy shot and killed the lion to reach Hanson and give her medical assistance. It was too late.
"The victim died at the scene."
Facility 'well run, professional'
Hanson's father said he
and his daughter took a two-day road trip from Seattle to Dunlap,
California, at the beginning of the year when Hanson's internship began.
She was supposed to be there for six months.
"Once there, she gave me
the tour and showed me all the big cats there with which she would be
working," the father, Paul, said in a statement Wednesday night.
"Of course, Dianna being Dianna, her favorites were the tiger and the lion ... who killed her today," he added.
Cous Cous once appeared
on Ellen DeGeneres' television show when he was about three months old.
The comedian fed him from a bottle as a handler stood by.
Late Wednesday, some who knew the lion, who had been breed and raised in captivity, were shocked.
Jenny Michaels, the head
of The Jungle Jenny Foundation, said she had been in the lion's cage
before, accompanied by a park worker .
"I didn't see any type of aggressive behavior," Michaels told CNN's Piers Morgan.She said the workers at the park were top-notch."It was really well run, very professional," she said. "I don't know the circumstances (of the attack) but I can tell you that in my interaction over at Project Survival they have been professional and ... they have run their protocol strictly."Noted animal expert Jack Hanna said that even if Hanson knew the lion, a big cat can be unpredictable in the way it reacts to what it sees or hears."They are wild animals, end of story," he said. "No matter what anyone says, they are wild animals."Hanna said it would be unusual for someone to enter an adult lion's cage without another person accompanying them or close by.
Big cat attacks
Twenty people, including
five children, have been killed by big cats in the United States in the
last 21 years, according to figures kept by Big Cat Rescue, a nonprofit
cat sanctuary in Tampa, Florida.
Another 246 people were
mauled in the United States during that same time period, 1990 to 2011,
the group said. The group's website did not have figures for 2012.
In California alone, 14 people were mauled, but Hanson's is just the second death.
In 2007, an escaped Siberian tiger attacked and killed one person and injured two others in a cafe at the San Francisco Zoo.
Love of lions started early
Hanson's love for big cats began when she was very young.
"As my mother can tell
you, I have had the goals of working with big cats since she adopted a
tiger in my name when I was seven," Hanson wrote in a 2011 letter.
While working at a
Washington ski resort while in college, she met a little boy who told
her his grandparents owned four tigers. She befriended the family.
When she graduated from
Western Washington University, her father presented her with a plane
ticket to fly to Nukuru, Kenya, with the family and see the work they
were doing with the animals.
"I will be volunteering
at the Cheetah research center, which is run by Project Survival,"
Hanson wrote in a college graduation letter. "They (also) have a
facility in California known as Cat haven. The owners of Cathaven have
invited me to see this facility, so I'm hoping to get down there this
summer."
In the letter, Hanson thanked her family and friends for helping her get close to her dreams.
""Dianna really loved her 6-month internship at Cat Haven," her father said in a statement, according CNN. "... Of course, Dianna being Dianna, her favorites were the tiger and the lion, Cou Cous, who killed her today."
Her father added, "I know that you will be happy. For now, you truly are in the eternal "Cat Haven.'"
dats is one reason yy i hate pets
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