Authorities were called to the Papanack Zoo in Wendover, Ontario, just east of Canada’s capital city of Ottawa on Sunday evening and found a male African White lion roaming freely around the park’s entrance.
Police attempted to help the owners of the park to contain the animal for about an hour, but when the risk to public safety began to escalate, they were forced to make a difficult decision and put the lion down.
The following statement was posted to the Papanack Zoo’s Facebook page early this morning:
“It is with great regret that I have to announce that today at approximately 5:19 pm our male lion breached it’s primary perimeter fence. Police were called immediately and within minutes our staff, with police present , made the decision to euthanize the lion on our property . The risk to the public of trying to sedate the lion was simply too high as the sedative takes too long too (sic) kick in and this would have put everyone at risk. Our zoo is closed to the public during the winter and there were no public on the grounds . Since taking over ownership at Papanack Zoo just under two years ago we have worked tirelessly to improve the facility and living conditions of the animals. Unfortunately it looks like this was a case of human error and we are going to be debriefing with all our staff to determine exactly what happened .
“Furthermore, we have started doing a full audit of all of our large carnivore exhibits. We have already been reaching out to other experts in the field to go over our current policies and protocols and exhibit designs to ensure that an incident such as this will not happen again . Once de-briefing with all our staff we will be making a full statement as to what happened to lead to this tragic event today. Our staff couldn’t be more upset about this and I would greatly appreciate if all concerns are directed to myself personally, Kerri Bayford… I look forward to shedding more light on the sad events of today.”