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In Tampa, Florida, Busch Gardens Suspends Private Tours After Lion Bit Off Arm of Zookeeper

Aired May 14, 2002 - 13:08   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: In Tampa, Florida, Busch Gardens has suspended private tours after a lion bit off the arm of a zookeeper, 21 year-old-woman. Park officials say Amanda Bourassa had been giving her family a private tour on Sunday when she stuck her finger into the cage minutes after feeding the animal. That was enough for the lion to grab onto and take hold.

More about that attack now from the Columbus Zoo in Columbus, Ohio.

Jack Hanna is our guest. Good afternoon to you. Good to see you again. I wish we could talk about something else, but nonetheless, what do you make of what happened? I know you think that track record in Busch Gardens is excellent. Tell us why that safety record is so good.

JACK HANNA, DIRECTOR, COLUMBUS ZOO: Number one, there is about 125 million visitors a year at our zoos and aquariums, and American Zoo and Aquarium Association have zoo very strict standards for all of us to adhere to, and we have inspections about every three to five years. And Busch Gardens not only adheres to all those things that the AZA says, but also they set these standards in their safety procedures a lot of us even follow. So, you know, when these things happen, as I tell people that first come to work here, wild animals are like a loaded gun.

And I must say that In last 20 years, I don't know of one zoo visitor that has been killed or maimed that bad by an animal in the zoo.

Obviously, as zoo keepers, our job tends to be dangerous at times. We try not to have it, but when you work wound wild animals, that's what happens.

HEMMER: Jack, Max the lion, 350 pounds, was not put down, was not put to sleep? What does this tell you, if anything?

HANNA: Well, you know these are wild animals. And as I said before, they are always wild. The old saying was, you can usually train a wild animal, but never, never tame a wild animal. You have to remember that. These animals are wild animals. They are ambassador to their cousins in the wild. They are here to educate millions of people about conservation and animals in the wild. Obviously, it wasn't Max's fault what he did. That was a natural instinct what Max did. I don't know the circumstances, what happened at Busch Gardens. My feelings go out to the family.

We had a similar accident happened to me in 1973, and it's a tragic thing that happens, and I am sorry to say, it does happen in tour business.

HEMMER: Jack, it said that there is a procedure going whereas as the lion literally backs and up sticks his tail outside of the cage to draw blood. How often does that procedure take place, and what do you know about that procedure?

HANNA: I just know that, again, Busch Gardens has been an innovator in animal husbandry, in having animals like not just the lions, but the whales and all of these animals you can't put down to examine everyday, and so they've been taught over years. It takes a lot of years of practice and work to have these animals habituated where they can go up, present a tail, so we can take blood, examine the animal, either on a weekly or monthly basis to make sure their health is good.

And 99 percent of our animals come from other zoological parks throughout the world, not from the wild. And reason that we have done that is we do such great things with animals in our care today, with veterinary medicine. And the procedures at Busch Gardens does are ones that we actually practice here at the Columbus Zoo.

HEMMER: Hey, Jack, it is also said that the woman at the time may have been feeding the animal at the time in a way where she stuck part of her finger or maybe even part of her hand through an area in a cage that was about 1.5 inches wide. Do you know of such facilities? Have you worked behind such facilities?

HANNA: Right. For example, right now, I'm behind scenes at the lion habitat here at the Columbus Zoological Park. We have a beautiful area up here where people watch, but you can see that the lions here -- this is behind scenes. If I were come up to here, and put my hand up in here, you follow the lion comes up like he wants something, correct. If you did this, you this see small space here, that lion could grab a finger, grad something and take it through, and of course at that point, it can only go through so far. So that's -- I have no idea what happened there, but that's what we're talking about. This is behind the scenes by the way. This is not where the public is where I am right now.

But these animals are curious. They are often times you think they are playful, but this is a 300-pound wild animal that's wild, that's capable of taking down a 2000-pound buffalo in a matter of 30 seconds. So you have to understand that. And after 34 years in this business, I understand how powerful the king of beasts is. These are female lions right here, and of course the male, I don't see him around right now, but he is even bigger than that.

HEMMER: Jack, is that cage typical? HANNA: Yes this is typical behind the scenes. This enclosure, it's a huge enclosure, almost an acre back here. Again, what you are seeing is behind the scenes, I want reiterate that. We have a beautiful habitat there. I am just back here right now because we have a lot of people here today, so.

HEMMER: Jack, the thing you mentioned, I know you have said it many times, behind the scene, that's what was tour was about essentially on Sunday. How common is that at zoological parks?

HANNA: Here at this park, it's common, because people that want to see the animals that might be -- for example, I am a zoo director, and one of the keepers that have been here a while, have been here 5- 10 years, and whether it's a year, if they have permission to go back here with their family, the keepers usually know procedures take to provide safety.

So obviously, some areas are off limits. For example, behind the scenes here is off limits to anybody. I am doing the interview right now. I used to raise about 25 lions, but I am still -- you can see how far I am away.

But no, it's a procedure we do in zoological parks and aquariums quite a bit, because these are people who not only might be donors to the zoo, or people might say, you know, we gave a million dollar enclosure to this park, can we see what we've built. So we do the best we can working this way.

HEMMER: Jack, I want to go back to the case in Florida. The woman was 21 years of age. Clearly, she did not have a lot of experience when it comes to the amount of time she's probably worked at that particular zoo, and I know you don't know a whole lot about her case. But speaking in general terms, is that a typical age for people who deal with animals such as Max?

HANNA: We have a lot of people come out of colleges and high school, 18 or 19 years old, that usually work around the animals. I am sure this young lady has been in her area I understand maybe a year or so, so she was very familiar probably with the procedures that Busch Gardens has and the safety procedures there.

Obviously, nothing is 100 percent as we know in life, you know, and an accident might have happened, and I my heart goes out to her and her family. These are things that happen. It's like an Indy 500 race every weekend or a stock car race, we know that something is probably going to happen during that year. And I am sorry to say that in our business with 125 million visitors and thousands of zookeepers and tens of thousands of animal, you know, that's what we work with, and most of the people, all that work here, all the people that work at our zoo, understand what they are in for when they work at a zoological park.

We do all safety we can do, as does Busch Gardens and those parks. So all we can do is the best we can do. And human error might be involved, I don't know what happened at that park. But I can tell you one thing, that Busch Gardens does have some of the finest safety procedures of anybody in the world.

HEMMER: Before we let you go, Jack, the animals behind you in the cage, what sort of age are they? How big are they?

HANNA: All right. These animals that you see here today are anywhere from probably 3 1/2 years old up to 6 and 7 years old. These are all females, and of course the male lion gets that mane at about 2 1/2 years old. That mane doesn't develop until the animal is about two years old. and of course he is the king of beast, and the females usually do most of killing for the males in wild, and they bring the meat to him, and he eats first, and then they get to eat.

HEMMER: About weight, though, how big would you say, how large?

HANNA: Large, I would say this animal here is probably 250, 275 pounds, and so the others ones, the males, as I said before, get quite a bit longer and have the mane. But you can see that this animal sees the camera here and sees me here, and I'm in an area right now that this animal is not familiar with. So if this animal were to do something with me right now, if I did something with my hand, he would not know he -- he's not hungry by any means. You see what I mean, the animal is not hungry by any means. He's just curious.

HEMMER: Well, you are the best, Jack, and that's why we wanted to have you on. Thanks for talking.

HANNA: Thank you, and my heart goes out to the family.

HEMMER: Indeed, Jack Hanna, at Columbus Zoo.

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