Lion attack victim loses arm

TAMPA, Fla., May 13 (UPI) -- Doctors said Monday the arm that a 21-year-old Busch Gardens zookeeper lost in a lion attack cannot be reattached.

Amanda Burasa was taking family members on a private behind-the-scenes tour of the park when the accident occurred. She was airlifted to Tampa General Hospital. The arm was severed just below the elbow and brought to the hospital by paramedics.

Busch Gardens has only two lions, Max, the 12-year-old 350-pound male who was involved in the attack, and a female. Max has been at the park since 1997. The lions are rotated through an Edge of Africa display alternately with other animals. There are no plans to euthanize the lion.

The attack occurred in the nighttime lion quarters at about 1:45 p.m. The animal was in a cage behind a fence with iron bars one-and-one-half inches apart while the woman was outside the fence.

This area is closed to the public, so only the victim's family members saw what happened and park operations were not disrupted. The group included her parents, her boyfriend and his parents.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission inspectors and federal wildlife officials visited the park Monday as a result of the incident. They tried to get information Sunday at the hospital, but hospital officials would not let them see any records and the woman's family refused an interview request, commission spokesman Gary Morse said.

"Any time we have captive wildlife and an injury occurs, we investigate," he explained.

Wildlife officials still want to interview the victim and her family, but have determined there were no safety or equipment violations by Busch Gardens.

After interviewing witnesses at the theme park, commission spokesman Steve De LaCure said Burasa and three other trainers were simulating the procedure used to draw blood for medical use from the cat's tail when the accident occurred.

They started by feeding the lion. After they finished the simulation, Burasa started getting up from her chair outside the cage, apparently using the cage to pull herself up.

"One of her fingers on her right hand was wrapped around the cage bar, which would have caused to finger to be inside (the cage)," De LaCure said. "That's what started the initial bite, and, of course, the animal pulled her arm in."

Busch Gardens Vice President of Zoological Operations Glenn Young said the private tour had been approved by a supervisor and was not an unusual occurrence. The woman has worked there for a year and has special training in handling African animals.

"This appears to be a freak accident at this point," he said. "I think she was very familiar with the animals."

Animal safety procedures at the park are being examined, as is the policy of allowing private family tours.

"We'll re-evaluate everything and look to find out what happened and make changes if necessary," Young said.

This is the fourth incident involving animals and people at Busch Gardens in Tampa. A 2-ton elephant fatally crushed a handler in 1989. In 1993, a zookeeper was bitten by a rattlesnake, but survived.

A woman claimed a Clydesdale horse bit off the tip of her finger in 1999. There have been at least four human fatalities caused by lions and tigers in Florida since 1994.