Dina is listed in critical condition — with her scalp torn off, and one of the lion’s claws having penetrated her skull, the station reported. Part of her skull was surgically removed Monday to relieve pressure on her brain. Her dad, who only suffered minor injuries, told the outlet that it’s expected to be a long road ahead for his daughter.
A tour guide at the farm told The Independent the incident occurred when dad and daughter “got a bit too close,” adding that he hoped the little girl would have a “quick recovery.”
The owners of the farm did not respond to a request for comment from the outlet.
It has been a troublesome month for the lion farm: Just last week, another man was wounded in an attack through the fence, the South African station reported.
And back in 2010, two sisters, 3 and 5, were attacked by lionesses at the same farm, South African outlet Independent Online reported.
Both were treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
“Sometimes they play a little rough,” the farm’s owner, Nico Roets, told the paper about the lions at the time.
Up to 8,000 wild lions are held in captivity at 260 South African breeding farms, compared to fewer than 3,000 out in the wild, the Independent reported.
Protesters have previously blasted the farms for allegedly neglecting the animals — and in some cases, operating as total scams that benefit from trophy-hunting or Asia’s trade in bones.
“This horrible incident underscores the need for the government of South Africa to shut down the lion breeding industry in the country, in order to protect both people from these ‘snuggle scam’ businesses in which they expose themselves to potential danger, and spare the suffering of thousands of lions languishing in appalling inadequate captive conditions where they are used as props for the tourist trade,” Audrey Delsink, a spokeswoman for Humane Society International, told the outlet.
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