Zoo protocol protects against mauling

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - An intern at a private wild animal park in California is dead after being mauled by a lion.

Twenty-four-year-old Dianna Hanson had gone inside the lion exhibit at Cat Haven Sanctuary, which, according to Hanson's father, was against the facility's rules. That is when Cous Cous - one of Hanson's favorite cats - attacked.

Another sanctuary employee tried to district Cous Cous and get him into another enclosure, but when that didn't work, sheriff's deputies shot and killed the 4-year-old lion.

To protect zookeepers here, the Buffalo Zoo has similar "no contact" rules. Even the most experienced keepers are always one closed cage away from the big cats, at feeding and cleaning time.

Buffalo Zoo President and CEO Donna Fernandes said, "First and foremost, we don't go in with them. Even if they're hand-reared. We've had, in the past, hand-reared tiger cubs and even lion cubs that were hand-reared. And we just have the protocol that you would never go in with them. And with inexperienced keepers, they don't have keys to anything, so they could never let themselves in, voluntarily."

In addition, Fernandes says, the cage doors that separate humans and animals have special locking mechanisms so that a lion or tiger would not be able to open those doors with its paws, even if it tried.