A British woman who had her arm ripped off by a lioness she tried to stroke at a Spanish animal sanctuary was yesterday recovering at a hospital in the town of Villajoyosa, near Alicante.
Anne Richards (54) from Neath, was attacked by Marta, an adult lion, after she stuck her fingers through the wire fence surrounding the lions’ enclosure at the Noah’s Ark animal centre in Benimantell, eastern Spain.
Spanish newspapers said yesterday that Richards had tried to stroke the lioness, named Marta, through the fence.
”Marta grabbed her fingers, tugged her in and ripped her arm off,” Serafin Domenech, owner of the sanctuary, told a Spanish television channel.
The arm was, reportedly, then pounced on by the other three lions.
Domenech claimed yesterday that Richards must have scaled a three-metre embankment to reach the fence. ”She climbed to the top and stuck her fingers inside,” he said, adding that she must have ignored the warnings against touching the animals.
But her sister Carol Jones, who was also on the trip, said the animal’s keeper had encouraged Richards and other tourists to stroke Marta and put their hands in her mouth. Richards’ husband James, a hospital porter, said from his Neath home yesterday: ”There is no way my wife could have climbed a 9ft fence. She is disabled, having suffered from osteoporosis for nine years, and she also suffers from angina.
”My sister-in-law phoned me from Spain and said Anne was invited to put her hand into the lion’s mouth by handlers.
”Apparently other tourists were doing the same thing and she was told that it was perfectly safe. She decided to try it and the lioness grabbed her arm and started biting it.”
Richards and the couple’s children, Amanda (30) and Michael (33) were due to fly out to be with her yesterday.
Richards was one of a group of 40 British tourists from Benidorm who travelled to the sanctuary, which is partly funded by the EU and looks after abandoned and unwanted animals. These include lions, tigers, bears and other animals from touring circus companies.
Marta is a former circus lion, and, according to her handlers, had previously been friendly and docile.
”She was a very well-behaved animal who had never done anything like this before,” Domenech said, adding: ”This is the first accident I have had in the 20 years I have been working with animals.”
A representative at the British embassy yesterday described Richards’ condition as ”stable”. She was due to be transferred to a bigger hospital in Benidorm last night.
Police were yesterday questioning Domenech about the attack. The Noah’s Ark centre was closed to visitors.
It was not the first time tourists have fallen foul of animals in Spain. Two German visitors were eaten by tigers at the nearby Verger safari park in 1999 after getting out of their car in the wrong spot. – Guardian Unlimited Â