If I'm Lion, I'm Dying

Teen Mauled While Trying To Kiss Captive Lion

Sky News

A teenager has been mauled by a captive lion after she tried to kiss the animal through the bars at a South African wildlife park.

Lauren Fagen, of Montreal, suffered severe flesh wounds when the male lion dragged her feet and legs into the enclosure at Moholoholo Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre.

The 18-year-old volunteer worker is recovering in hospital and says she is lucky to be alive.

"I didn't realise he could stick his paws through. I should have died or lost a leg," Ms Fagen told The Globe and Mail newspaper.

"It was a miracle that I survived. He could have ripped off my skin and I would have died of blood loss."

Ms Fagen began volunteer work at the wildlife centre in June cleaning the lion cages and feeding other animals.

The attack happened while Ms Fagen was cleaning a feeding cage on Monday.

A five-year-old male lion named Duma began rubbing his face against an adjoining cage, and Ms Fagen said she decided to kiss the animal's fur.




It’s an animalistic type of day in the BYB today.

What was this kid thinking? You know why the lion is behind the cage? Because he’s a freaking lion! And, if he had it his way, I don’t think he’d be behind bars. He’d probably rather have a belly full of Montreal teenager while enjoying a leisurely nap on the open plains.

But due to poachers and general interference he has to sit in an enclosure. The last thing he wants is a kiss from some goofy Canadian broad to make him feel better.

There’s no way this kid is getting into college, right? Or university, as they call it in the Great North. I’m sure admissions people use Google to weed through students and if that’s true, she’s screwed. No one is letting in the girl that’s stupid enough to kiss a lion.

True story: On the way to Mardi Gras we stopped at a gas station in Louisiana that had a live bengal tiger behind a cage. I was about this girls age and was pretty much lit on beer and shots and I still knew it was a bad idea to go poking my lips around a tiger cage. Sure, I made several other bad decisions that weekend but they weren’t tiger related.