Fatal Lion Attack At Cat Haven Park Killed Dianna Hanson

Dianna Hanson, the 24-year-old intern killed in a fatal lion attack inside an enclosure at a big cat sanctuary in California, died of a broken neck, a Fresno County coroner revealed today.

The coroner said that Hanson died instantly and that the 4-year-old male African lion named Cous Cous caused additional wounds to the woman’s body after her death.

The body of the 500-pound lion, shot dead after killing Hanson, is now at a vet facility in Tulare County awaiting a necropsy to determine what may have caused the fatal attack.

Hanson was two months into an internship program at the Cat Haven in Dunlap, a small town in Fresno County near King’s Canyon National Park, when she was killed.

“Even though she was only with us for a little over two months, she was part of our family,” said Wendy Debbas, the president of Project Survival Cat Haven, a non-profit group associated with the sanctuary. “She made instant friendships with everybody up here. Everybody loved her.

“She has songs she made up for each of the cats,” Debbas told reporters this evening. “A cute example of that is we have jaguar cubs named Samba and Rose. Samba’s song was not ‘La Bamba’ but ‘La Samba.’ And Rose was ‘Kissed by a Rose.’ And she had songs like that for all of the cats. She was vivacious. She loved her work. She loved big cats.”

VIDEO