Lioness Mauls Little Girl During Circus Show, Doctors Say She Will Be 'Scarred For Life'
Amelia Finefrock	Animals, Interesting People	 October 31, 2018 October 31, 2018 2 Minutes
After a lioness at a circus show was able to break through a safety net in Russia, a little girl was dragged into the ring and mauled while the show was going on.
Ksenia, the four-year-old girl, thankfully survived the attack but doctors say that she will be 'scarred for life.'
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In video footage, audience members can be seen looking horrified.
One of the medics who treated the small girl, Valentina Pavlova, said:
"There is a bite on her face that goes from ear to chin. An eyewitness said her mother had allowed the girl to get close to the safety net and to wave a banner. The lioness reacted to this and with its paw pulled the child inside onto the arena and sank its teeth into her head. The circus team pulled the lioness away and delivered the girl to the Central Republican Hospital. She is now in stable condition, there is no danger to her life."
Director of Big Moscow State Circus, Edgard Zapashny, said it was both the circus and the girl's family's fault.
He shared with LADBIBLE:
"I firmly believe that the blame lies completely with the owner and director of that traveling circus, the lioness's trainer and on the adult, who came with the child and let go of her while being in the front row."
But after watching the footage of the lioness performing one minute and acting out in violence the next — points to a bigger issue.
Is the use of live animals in circuses appropriate?
Earlier in the year, video footage was released of a tiger convulsing and collapsing after jumping through a ring of fire.
Zena, the six-year-old tiger, started to shake while at the circus run by Artur and Karina Bagdasarovin Magnitogorsk, Russia. Artur then poured water over Zena in the footage, and then — drags her by her tail.
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Some tigers are controlled with whips and sticks — which lead folks to accuse circuses of animal cruelty but the circuses have other opinions…
Karina shared:
"Artur did his best to bring Zena back to her senses and he did all the right things – he touched her reflexive zones, he poured water on her. The main thing was to stop other animals from attacking. For them a weak animal is a target, it is an order to kill. If we had not stopped them, it would have ended with a bloody fight. And nobody knows who would have been alive after that."
PETA has been vouching to ban animal acts in circuses for quite some time now. In the UK – the government has pledged to rid wild animals from traveling circuses by the year 2020 in England.
You can help today by signing this petition to have a hand in retiring animals from traveling in the Russian circus
The petition argues that circuses can still be operational and fun without the use of live animals.
And after watching that video, I couldn't agree more.
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