Tiger killed our girl but zoo won’t say sorry 4yrs on
Family hits out after latest tragedy
THE family of a Scots zookeeper mauled to death by a tiger has told how the animal park’s owner has yet to offer his condolences four years after the tragedy.
Sarah McClay died after being pounced on by a Sumatran tiger at the South Lakes Wild Animal Park in Cumbria in 2013.
The animal burst into the keeper’s corridor through an unlocked gate and left the 24-year-old with deep puncture wounds in her neck and body.
Speaking in the wake of an almost identical tragedy at a zoo in Cambridgeshire earlier this week, Miss McClay’s mother has called for zoos and safari parks to be ‘strictly legislated’ for the safety of those who work in them.
Rosa King, 34, was fatally mauled by a tiger on Monday while cleaning an enclosure at Hamerton Zoo Park near Peterborough.
That attraction yesterday remained closed as police investigations into the incident continued.
However, Miss McClay’s family spoke of the ‘total disrespect’ shown by South Lakes then-owner David Gill, who reopened the zoo the day after the tragedy and later issued a public statement claiming the zookeeper had been at fault by entering a den she shouldn’t have been in. Sister Lucy, of West Lothian, told the Daily Telegraph: ‘Even if it had been her fault, that wasn’t the time to say it.
‘Opening the zoo the next day seemed like total disrespect; he has never been in touch with us or offered his condolences.’
The keeper’s younger sister, who is now 25, recalled: ‘We are a family of animal lovers and when Sarah got that job we were thrilled This is the zoo we went to as children and now she was the big cat keeper – how cool was that?’
Miss McClay’s mother Fiona, 53, said: ‘Zoos need to be strictly legislated, not just for the animals but for the keepers and all the people who enjoy seeing them.’
Mr Gill, who says he has now retired from zoo management, last night denied Miss McClay’s claims that he had failed to offer condolences to the family.
He said: ‘We have offered our condolences to the family on numerous occasions. It is unfair to say otherwise. I’ve got daughters of my own and I can’t imagine having to live through what the family have lived through every day.’