On June 2, a 22-year-old American tourist was killed after being mauled by a lioness at the Lion Park in Honeydew, north-west of Johannesburg, according to an eNCW article.
The woman’s car window was open when the lioness jumped in and attacked her. The man accompanying her was taken to hospital after sustaining injuries from attempting to fight the lioness off the woman.
Scott Simpson, Acting Operations Manager at the Lion Park confirmed to Tourism Update that the lion would not be euthanased as a result of the attack but instead would be moved to a separate enclosure where access was restricted, to ensure such an accident wouldn’t occur again. He also confirmed that this was the third incident in the park in the last four months.
When asked how the Lion Park was going to handle the latest incident, Simpson said an internal investigation was under way to determine details of what happened and thereafter a meeting would be held to ensure such an incident couldn’t occur again.
He stressed that there were multiple procedures in place to ensure that visitors followed the safety procedures of the park. “There is signage throughout the park and at each lion enclosure. When entering the first lion enclosure, visitors are stopped by a member of staff, where a safety pamphlet is given. The pamphlet highlights the importance of keeping car windows closed. When visitors follow the rules, the park is a safe place to be. It’s when visitors don’t follow the rules that accidents happen,” he added.
The park will consider assigning park rangers to monitor cars and issue warnings or fines to people who don’t comply with the safety notices. Staff members are also stationed at the gate of each lion enclosure.
According to the article, the NSPCA condemned the incident on Monday night. Ainsley Hay, NSPCA Manager was quoted as saying: "Places like the Lion Park are no good for the visitors or the animals. Places that keep lions in captivity claim to be doing it for education and conservation purposes but if you can’t even educate visitors to keep windows closed how are you educating them?”
Simpson responded, saying that the Lion Park anticipated such a reaction and that the NSPCA was entitled to its opinion. “The NSPCA may do an investigation themselves, which the Lion Park welcomes. We know they are unhappy with animals in captivity, but there is not much to say to that,” he told Tourism Update.
When asked who should be held accountable for the incident, Simpson responded by saying that at this stage it was too early to assign blame, as the internal investigation and police inquest were still ongoing.
Over 200 000 people visit the Lion Park every year and this is the first accident of this nature.
