A safari park worker mauled by a lion has spoken of the moment the animal tore through her leg “like butter”.
Lauren Fagen, then 18, was cleaning out the cages of two lions at the Moholoholo rehab centre, South Africa in 2013 when they attacked her and one of them bit her leg.
Duma the lion reached through the bars of his cage and dragged Ms Fagen’s legs through an open gap.
Ms Fagen, who is from Quebec, Canada, was saved by fellow volunteer and British vet Natalie Bennett, who tried to fight off the lions with a broom.
In a new book called Bite Club, Ms Fagen told author Dougie Wight: “Duma stuck his entire leg through the bars, nearly the full length of it because of how far I was away.”
“Before I could react he got me with the tip of his nail into the middle of my right calf,” she continued.
“It was like butter, it went right in. I felt a thud - he had pulled me on to my back, I hit the ground and was looking up at the ceiling..
“He sliced open my leg. It looked like what you would see at the butcher, like something from a dead cow that would hang from the ceiling. I thought, That can’t be my leg because that’s not what … wait, it is my leg.
Ms Fagen started to scream for help and kicked with her other leg but the lion immediately pulled it through the bars up to the groin.
Duma’s female mate Tree then joined in the attack, gnawing at Ms Fagen’s feet.
The park worker suffered 10 flesh wounds on her legs and feet as a result of the attack.
She described how her left kneecap “nearly came completely off and was hanging by a piece of skin”.
Looking back at the attack 10 years on, the now 28 year-old said that while she suffered muscle and nerve damage “it could’ve been a lot worse.”
