March 8, 2013 -- Updated 2123 GMT (0523 HKT)
Safety protocols were in place at a California big cat sanctuary where a
female intern, 24, was killed Wednesday by a lion, founder Dale
Anderson told reporters. FULL STORY
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LION ESCAPED
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CLOSER LOOK AT KILLER CAT
March 8, 2013 -- Updated 1034 GMT (1834 HKT)
Dad had premonition daughter would die
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Victim's father says he had "premonition ... I would get a call like this," just not so soon
- NEW: "Everybody loved" Dianna Hanson at the big cat sanctuary, an official there says
- The lion opened a gate and got into a main enclosure, killing the woman, the coroner says
- The intern killed by the lion died of a "broken neck" and "did not suffer," he adds
His nightmare came true
Wednesday, when a 350-pound African lion killed Dianna Hanson at Project
Survival's Cat Haven in Dunlap, California, where she was working as an
intern.
"I always had a
premonition that someday I would get a call like this," her father said
Thursday. "But I just thought it would be much further in the future
than 24."
That's how old the
Seattle native was when the lion opened the gate of a pen at the big cat
sanctuary, then moved into a larger enclosure, according to the local
coroner.
Dad: Intern's job 'was her dream'
Hanna: Sanctuary lions are wild animals
Exclusive video of lion that attacked
Expert: Lions are 'powerful creatures'
Dianna Hanson was
cleaning the enclosure the two lions had been in not long before, Fresno
County coroner Dr. David Hadden said, citing investigators. Somehow,
one of those animals -- a 5-year-old lion named Cous Cous -- escaped and
attacked her.
"(Hanson) died very quickly and did not suffer," Hadden said.
A preliminary autopsy
showed Hanson died of a "broken neck and other neck injuries," according
to the coroner. The animal inflicted other injuries "post-mortem."
Paul Hanson,told CNN's
Erin Burnett he had been told that his daughter wasn't mauled, saying
she had no blood, "no rips or gashes."
He and his family are
grieving, taking comfort in the fact that Dianna Hanson died doing what
she loved -- taking care of big cats such as Cous Cous. Looking back at
photos Dianna had posted on Facebook over the past two months, when
she'd begun working at the expansive northern California facility, Paul
Hanson said he and his wife agreed that this was the happiest they'd
ever seen her.
"And that's the only way I can bear this," he said. "Because this was her dream. She was living her dream."
Death devastates those at big cat sanctuary
When she was 6 or 7,
Dianna Hanson was convinced she'd someday go to Siberia to study
Siberian snow tigers. Her obsession with them and, eventually, other big
cats never left her, according to her father.
Her first hands-on
experience with such animals came while a student at Western Washington
University in Bellingham, where she helped take care of lions and tigers
owned by a family there.
The six-month internship
at Cat Haven was her big break -- her ticket, she hoped, to getting a
full-time job at a zoo. Paul Hanson said that his daughter was impressed
with everything about what she considered "a very safe, well-run place"
where the animals got far more room to roam than at most zoos.
"She was just really
impressed with the way it was laid out and organized," he said. "There
was never any question of safety in her mind or any mismanagement."
Cat Haven's founder, Dale Anderson, said the facility has been "incident-free" since it opened in 1998.
And Dianna Hanson
quickly became part of the "family," lightening the load and brightening
the mood wherever she went, recalled the non-profit's president, Wendy
Debbas. She gave the animals songs -- for a jaguar named Samba it was
"La Samba," to the tune of "La Bamba," while another named Rose had
"Kissed by a Rose."
"She made instant friendships with everybody up here," Debbas said. "Everybody loved her."
They don't -- at least now, at least publicly -- have an explanation as to what happened to her.
The Fresno County
Sheriff's Office said that when the lion attacked, another employee at
the sanctuary tried to distract him away from Hanson and move him into
another enclosure.
"But all attempts failed," the office said.
A sheriff's deputy shot and killed the animal to reach Hanson and give her medical assistance. However, it was too late.
"Our whole staff is ... it's just, it's devastating," Anderson said Thursday, choking back tears.
'They are wild animals, end of story'
The autopsy finding on
Hanson will be reviewed by a veterinarian at the California Department
of Fish and Wildlife, which is conducting the necropsy on the lion.
"Fish and Wildlife has
trained our officers in California to recognize a lion kill due to our
abundance of mountain lions," Hadden said, noting that the coordination
between the two camps follows a protocol set up in case of a mountain
lion attack.
"We never in our wildest imagination thought it would be an African lion."
Fatal lion maulings are rare in the United States, though not unprecedented.
Twenty people, including
five children, have been killed by big cats in the United States in the
past 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 attacking lion, Cous
Cous, was one of Dianna Hanson's favorites, according to her father.
The lion was also a celebrity of sorts, having appeared on Ellen
DeGeneres' television show when he was about 3 months old.
That said, noted animal expert Jack Hanna said any 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."
CNN's Ted Rowlands reported from California,
Cristy Lenz reported from Atlanta, and Greg Botelho wrote the story.
CNN's Steve Almasy contributed to this report.
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