As authorities investigate, father says daughter mauled by lion had wanted to be near big cats

DUNLAP, Calif. — A 24-year-old intern who was described by her father as a “fearless” lover of big cats ventured into a lion enclosure at a privately owned zoo and was mauled to death, prompting investigations by several government agencies that want to know how the accident happened. Dianna Hanson, whose Facebook page is plastered with photos of her petting tigers and other big cats, was frustrated that the exotic cat zoo in California where she had worked since January did not allow direct contact with animals, her father told The Associated Press. “She was disappointed because she said they wouldn’t let her into the cages with the lion and tiger there,” Paul Hanson, a Seattle-area attorney, said about Cat Haven, the site of the deadly mauling on Wednesday. Friends of Dianna Hanson recalled her passion for cat conservation. “She was lovely. Energetic, athletic. She did everything she could to help our conservation efforts,” said Kat Combes of the Soysambu Conservancy in Kenya, where Hanson recently had volunteered to work in the Cheetah Research Center. For reasons still being investigated, Dianna Hanson entered the enclosure of a male African lion named Cous Cous on a day that Cat Haven, 45 miles east of Fresno, was closed to the public. The 4-year-old lion, which had lived at the park since it was a cub, attacked Hanson and was later shot by Fresno County sheriff’s deputies who were trying to reach her body. Autopsy results revealed the reddish-haired young woman died quickly of a broken neck, possibly from a paw swipe, and the numerous bites and scratches she sustained were inflicted after she died. On Wednesday, deputies found the mortally injured Hanson lying inside the enclosure, with Cous Cous nearby, said Fresno County sheriff’s Lt. Bob Miller. Another park worker had failed to lure the lion into another pen, so deputies shot and killed it to reach the wounded woman, but she died at the scene, he said. Whether Hanson ignored orders or was performing a function that placed her in danger is being investigated by Cal-OSHA, which also is trying to determine if employees were properly instructed about potential danger, as required. “There should have been procedures that very clearly stated what the employees were required to do in order to not get killed,” said agency spokesman Peter Melton, who added that documentation about the warning had not yet been provided by Cat Haven. In addition, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which enforces the federal Animal Welfare Act, is also looking to understand why the lion turned on the intern. “We’re looking at whether the animal was acting in a manner leading up to that situation that maybe the staff should have been aware of,” spokesman Dave Sacks said. “Was it being fed properly? Was it under undue stress?” USDA inspectors conduct multiple unannounced inspections of Cat Haven every year and never had found a violation, Sacks said. Federal regulations pertain only to animal treatment, and do not “cover every single instance of what a facility can and cannot do,” he said.

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