Tiger that mauled zookeeper to death could have killed children and families as enclosure gates stayed open for 80 minutes, report finds
- Rosa King, 33, was mauled to death by a Malayan tiger in Hamerton Zoo in 2017
- The experienced keeper left two gates open when she cleaned the pen
- Assistant Coroner said the tiger could have caused ‘multiple fatalities’ at the zoo
A tiger that mauled a zookeeper to death could have killed children and families as the enclosure gate was left open for 80 minutes, an report has found.
An eight-year-old Malayan tiger, Cicip, pounced on experienced zoo keeper Rosa King, 33, while she was cleaning the windows of his enclosure at Hamerton Zoo in Cambridgeshire in May 2017.
It wasn’t until a member of the public stumbled on her lifeless body that the gate was finally closed.
It’s thought that the tiger had a window of between 15 and 80 minutes to escape the enclosure and wreak havoc on the park.
The bloodied body of zoo keeper, Rosa King, pictured before her death, was spotted by a visitor to the zoo who alerted other keepers to the incident
Rosa King is pictured with two of the tigers at Hamerton Zoo Park on a previous world tiger day
The male Malayan tiger Cicip, pictured, killed Rosa in a ‘freak accident’ in 2017. Keepers were said to have been able to entice him back into the enclosure after the incident
Cambridgeshire’s Assistant Coroner Nicholas Moss has published a report to prevent future deaths.
He said that ‘there was a serious risk of casualties and fatalities to the visiting public’ at Hamerton on the day and it was simply lucky that no one else was attacked.
‘Cicip could simply have walked out of the tiger enclosure into the public areas,’ Moss said. ‘[It was] largely by chance…that the risk of multiple casualties to the public did not materialise.’
Visitors, including children, had begun to congregate by the open gate.
‘They could easily have been killed,’ he said.
Assistant Coroner Nicholas Moss has proposed new ‘airlock’ guidance for zoos after the death of Rosa King (pictured)
Moss said that the risk was caused by a ‘simple human error on the part of a safety-conscious experienced zoo keeper’. King is pictured playing through the fence with another tiger at the Hamerton Zoo
In the wake of the tragedy, Moss has proposed new ‘airlock’ guidance for zoos to the Health and Safety Executive and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
According to Moss, members of the public were put at risk due to a ‘simple human error on the part of a safety-conscious experienced zoo keeper’.
An earlier inquest discovered that King, who had been a keeper for 13 years, had probably failed to check the tiger was secure before letting herself into the enclosure.
DEFRA park guidelines dictate that zoos should have double ‘airlock’ doors for the safety of the public, which Hamerton Zoo did not have at the time.
Though they have now attached appropriate doors to the enclosures, Moss is still concerned that there are no firearms on site to stop vicious animals in the event of an escape.
Rosa King (pictured above) died at Hamerton Zoo Park in Cambridgeshire in what management described as a ‘freak accident’
He wrote to the Mirror: ‘I am concerned that more than two years after Rosa’s death, the process of the zoo obtaining conventional firearms has still not been completed. This carries a risk of further deaths’.
At an inquest in July, King’s mother, Andrea King, wiping tears from her eyes, said in evidence it was clear from the age of two that her daughter would end up working with animals.
She described her as ‘knowledgeable about all the animals in her care’, adding: ‘She followed her dreams and it wasn’t very often you wouldn’t see her with a smile on her face.’
Andrea did not express any concerns about working conditions at the park.
‘She thought two people working together wasn’t as safe as it would be easier to become complacent,’ she said.