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Cat Haven Employee Recounts Deadly Lion Attack
PHOTO: Meg Pauls (left) called 911 when she found Dianna Hanson (right) unresponsive at the Cat Haven sanctuary.

An employee of a big cat California sanctuary where a volunteer intern was fatally attacked called the attack an unfortunate mistake, and that nobody was to blame.

Employee Meg Pauls was performing her regular cat feedings and enclosure cleanings with intern Dianna Hanson right before the 24-year-old was attacked and killed last week.




When Pauls got to Cous Cous' enclosure, she found that the door was open when it should have been closed. It is still unclear what exactly caused the attack.


Pauls couldn't secure the lion and get to Hanson, 24, so she kept him next to her while she called 911. Less than 30 minutes after Hanson entered the cage, Cous Cous was shot by a Fresno County sheriff's deputy who'd responded to the call, authorities said.





Anderson started raising Cous Cous when he was 8-weeks-old. Anytime you are dealing with a 500-pound cat, he said, there was risk of an accident.


Hanson's family members knew their daughter loved Cat Haven, and they don't want anything to happen to the it as a result of their daughter's accident, Anderson said.


Pauls said she never questioned the way the cat enclosures are set up or her training. She has never feared the animals and feels safe at her job. Anderson said Hanson had an unfortunate accident and didn't want people to think any less of her.



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