The woman was attacked and killed when she entered the lion’s enclosure, said Dale Anderson, founder and executive director Cat Haven in Dunlap, California.
Anderson, who was crying as he read a one-sentence statement about the fatal mauling at the exotic animal zoo he has operated since 1993, refused to take questions from reporters, but extended thoughts and prayers to the victim’s friends and relatives.
The facility, which is near Fresno in the Sierra Nevada foothills, is licensed by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. It is normally closed on Wednesdays, and only one other worker was there when the mauling happened, said Fresno County sheriff’s Sgt. Greg Collins.
He said investigators were trying to determine why the person was inside the enclosure and what might have provoked the attack.
A sheriff’s deputy shot and killed the lion after the attack, California Fish and Wildlife spokesman Lt. Tony Spada said.
The lion, a 4-year-old male named Couscous, had been raised at Cat Haven since it was 8 weeks old, said Tanya Osegueda, a spokeswoman for Project Survival, the nonprofit that operates Cat Haven.
Osegueda did not know how the park acquired the cub.
Cat Haven is a 100-acre (40-hectare) wild animal park just west of Kings Canyon National Park. Since the property opened in 1993, it has housed numerous big cats, including tigers, leopards and other exotic species.
Couscous was one of about two dozen animals at Cat Haven, which has had a good safety record, Spada said.
Another big cat sanctuary, Big Cat Rescue in Tampa, Florida, told the AP last year that at least 21 people, including five children, have been killed and 246 mauled by exotic cats in the U.S. since 1990. Over that period, 254 cats escaped and 143 were killed.
Tatiana, a tiger at the San Francisco Zoo, was killed by police after jumping out of its enclosure and fatally mauling 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr. and injuring two other people in 2007.
Cat Haven has housed Bengal tigers, Siberian lynx, caracals, jaguars and leopards of various types as well as bobcats native to the area. Anderson described the private zoo several years ago as one of a handful of facilities across the U.S. that has all of the big cat species in one place.
The facility’s website says it promotes conservation and preservation of wild cats in their native habitats and offers visitors tours and educational outreach.