‘FEARLESS’:
Dianna Hanson, 24, was working her “dream job” as an animal-rescue intern at a California sanctuary when her favorite cat, Cous Cous (above), attacked her, her dad says.
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The father of a 24-year-old California wildlife-preserve intern had always feared her love of big cats would be fatal.
That premonition proved all too accurate when Dianna Hanson was found bleeding in a cage Wednesday after being mauled by the 4-year-old African lion, who had been her favorite. She died of her wounds.
“She was at ease with those big cats. They liked her,” said Paul Hanson, her father. “She was absolutely fearless.”
Dianna had considered her work at Cat Haven in Dunlap, Calif., a “dream job,” her father recalled.
“But I always had a premonition I would get a call like this one day,” said Paul Hanson, a Seattle-area lawyer.
He said that while attending Western Washington University, Dianna worked at “a sizable estate” outside Bellingham, Wash., that was home to exotic animals, including three tigers and a lion.
Dianna Hanson had begun a six-month internship in January at Cat Haven, a 100-acre private sanctuary east of Fresno.
She showed her dad her favorite lion, Cous Cous, during a tour of the facility — and said she would not be allowed to go in his cage.
Cat Haven will remain closed until further notice as investigators try to determine why Cous Cous attacked, officials said yesterday.
Park workers couldn’t lure the beast into another pen, so sheriff’s deputies shot and killed him to get to Hanson. She died a short time later, authorities said.
Actress and wildlife-rescue activist Tippi Hedren expressed dismay at the killing of the animal.
“It wasn’t the lion’s fault,” said Hedren, who founded Southern California’s Shambala Preserve. “It’s the human’s fault, always.”
Nicole Paquette, vice president of the Humane Society of the United States, said Hanson shouldn’t have been in the cage.
“These are big cats that are extremely dangerous, and they placed a volunteer in the actual cage with a wild animal,” she said. “That should have never happened.”
Cat Haven is normally closed on Wednesdays, and only one other worker was there when the mauling happened, investigators said,
They are not pursuing a criminal investigation because all leads indicate Hanson’s death was an accident, Sheriff’s Lt. Robert Miller said.