Calif. exotic animal park lion kills Wash. intern

DUNLAP, Calif. (AP) — The Seattle-area intern fatally mauled by a lion at a Central California exotic animal park loved lions and tigers since childhood, "was absolutely fearless" around them and hoped to work at a zoo after her six-month internship, her father said late Wednesday.

"She was at ease with those big cats," Paul Hanson, a Seattle-area attorney, said of his daughter, Dianna Hanson, 24. "They liked her."

Hanson told The Associated Press that he dropped his daughter off Jan. 2 at Cat Haven, about 45 miles east of Fresno.

"It was just a dream job for her," he said, adding that she gave him a little tour and showed him the lion Cous Cous, which authorities said killed her.

Hanson said his daughter had worked with big cats before but told him she would not be allowed to go in the lion cage.

On Wednesday, deputies found the woman severely injured and still lying inside the male African lion's enclosure with the lion nearby, said Fresno County sheriff's Lt. Bob Miller. Another park worker couldn't lure the lion into another pen, so deputies shot and killed it to safely reach the wounded woman, but she died at the scene, he said.