A 4-year-old girl suffered a serious injury to her head after a lioness reportedly clawed her scalp when she was visiting a lion farm.
The incident happened at Weltevrede Lion Farm in Cape Town, South Africa, on May 12.
Dina-Marie de Beer, 4, was being held by her father Pieter so she could pet a lion cub, when a lioness attacked them. The father suffered minor injuries, but part of the daughter’s scalp was reportedly torn off by the attack.
Dina-Marie is now in critical condition and her father said it would be a very long road to recovery, reported IOL.
She was transported by air to Netcare Union Hospital and was put in an induced coma. Part of her skull was surgically removed to lessen the pressure from her brain.
A tour guide that works at the farm told The Independent that the father and daughter “got a bit too close, the lion grabbed him through the fence” and that he hoped the child would have “a quick recovery.”
Nico Roets, the owner of the farm, said that lions are dangerous and wild and “sometimes they play a little rough.”
The Weltevrede Lion Farm posted on Facebook pictures of their old signs, and said they would add new ones.
In 2010 two sisters were also attacked by lions at the farm.
According to The Independent, there are 260 breeding farms that hold up to 8,000 lions, with less than 3,000 left in the wild.
A spokesperson for the Humane Society International told The Independent, “This horrible incident underscores the need for the government of South Africa to shut down the lion breeding industry in the country, in order to protect both people from these ‘snuggle scam’ businesses in which they expose themselves to potential danger, and spare the suffering of thousands of lions languishing in appalling inadequate captive conditions where they are used as props for the tourist trade.”
A Facebook page called “Blood Lions” also condemns the so-called sanctuaries.
“Blood Lions notes with concern another appalling incident involving a captive bred predator mauling a visitor, in this instance a 4-year-old toddler, at a facility,” the page said in a statement.
“For the umpteenth time, we again have to ask of the government and the various private sector and quasi-government tourism authorities why they continue to sanction predator breeding and the exploitation of predators for commercial gain? And because they do, they continue to sanction these cruel industries and the fact that tourists will continue to get injured or killed,” it added.
