(HAWKESBURY, ON) – On Sunday February 28th, at approximately 4:20 pm, the Hawkesbury Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) were called to assist at the Papanack Zoo situated at 150 County Road 19, Wendover in the Alfred-Plantagenet Township, as a male lion had escaped from its enclosure.
Police rapidly arrived on scene and spotted the African white adult male lion freely walking in the park entrance, an unfenced area.
OPP officers assisted the owner of the zoo with containment of the animal as public safety was the primary concern.
Due to a high risk to public safety and given the totality of circumstances, the adult male lion was executed by the zoo owner shortly before 5:30 pm this evening.
No officers or public citizens or other animals were injured during this incident.
I think it’s pretty disgusting that the animal couldn’t be sent to a specialized rehabilitation center! I mean really how could that have been the only possible solution to this issue! Tranq the animal and get it somewhere where it can recover from the abuses of living in a zoo environment! SHUT DOWN THAT STUPID PLACE!
While I agree they could have tranquilized the lion the owner says there was too great of a danger to the public. Tranquilizers on lions take too long to have any affect. Thus too great of a danger with a lion walking around.
The poor zoo owner. I can only imaging how much grief and pain he must be in, having to put that lion down. Notice he did it and not the OPP. I’m sure this scenario went threw his mind a million times before this ever happened. He did not take any pleasure in doing this, and I feel for him. BTW i am against zoos as well, but we took the kids there a few years ago and had a great time and the animals were well taken care of.
if they would have used the trank right away it would have been working before the time that they shot it cause they took an hour before shooting it!!!
From what I understood the tranqualizer could have caused the lion to be agitated and possibly dangerous to the public nearby. It’s tragic for everyone including the zoo owners. R.i.p. Zeus. My sympathies to the papanack crew!
I have been getting e-mails about this before I read what was going on and I love animals. When I think of the lion I think about Clarence the Cross Eyed Lion from the program Daktari back in the 60’s era. I was thinking why not sedate the lion instead of killing him and everyone that I get e-mails from are upset and I don’t know these people but they are asking me to sign some sort of petition. I felt very bad to hear this thing but something had to be done to protect the people around but I think that shooting a few darts of transqualizer wold have been a better resort to have taken.