Staff reports
BURLINGTON, N.C. — A witness told authorities a gate blocked by a large toy ball at a North Carolina animal preserve kept the gate from being secured and allowed a lion to reach three people at the start of an attack in which a woman from New Palestine died.
The account is contained in a medical examiner’s report on the death on Dec. 30 of Alex Black, 22, a 2014 graduate of New Palestine High School who had just started work as an intern at the Conservators Center in Burlington, N.C., with ambitions to make animal husbandry a career. The report was released Wednesday. In a statement to the Daily Reporter, Black’s family said it wants more information to be made public.
According to the document, first reported by WRAL-TV and the Times-News of Burlington, an animal trainer, Ashley Watts, told Caswell County, N.C., sheriff’s investigators she had separated the 14-year-old lion into a section of an enclosure. Watts said the gate securing that section was blocked by a large ball, and the lion was able to leave that area and enter the section of the enclosure that Watts, Black and a second intern were cleaning, the report stated. Before Watts could close the gate, the lion bit Black’s ankle, pulling her into the enclosure, the report said.
The sheriff’s official, Lt. Eugene Riddick, said fire department personnel used a fire hose to separate the lion and Black without success, the report noted. After attempts to sedate the lion with darts failed, deputies shot the lion eight times with a shotgun, killing the animal, the report said.
The Times-News noted that the attempts to subdue the animal took place over 2½ hours. The incident began at 11:15 a.m., the report notes. First-responders didn’t reach Black until 1:30 p.m., the newspaper said.
The initial assessment showed Black died from multiple deep lacerations to the neck with significant blood loss, according to the report. It lists the probable cause of death as “Mauling by Animal.”
The Conservators Center, in a statement, said that “all credible evidence” indicates that she was “killed almost instantly.”
In a statement sent to the Daily Reporter, the family said: “These are difficult details for us to hear, but we look forward to the public release of more information surrounding our tragic loss.
“The coroner’s narrative reflects a scenario described by only the keeper involved, which is not backed up by the listing of wounds in other areas of the report,” the family’s statement continued. The Conservators Center itself has cast doubt on the exercise ball as a factor.”
The Conservators Center disputed the report that the gate was obstructed by a ball, saying that is “neither accurate nor plausible.”
“We are disappointed that the information in the ‘Preliminary Summary of Circumstances,’ based largely on an external examination, is imprecise,” the center said in its statement, according to the Times-News.
The center acknowledged that the gate “could not have been properly closed and locked.” But it didn’t offer an explanation of how the lion was able to reach the three women.
The attack occurred less than two weeks after Black, a recent graduate of Indiana University, had begun working at the nonprofit wildlife facility. The center, described recently as a “community zoo” by its executive director, was founded in 1999.
USDA inspections in 2017 and 2018 found no problems at the center, according to government reports. A government inspector counted 16 lions among 85 total animals in 2018. The lion that attacked Black, named Matthai, was born at the center, according to the center’s website.
The center stresses in its statement that as an intern, Black wasn’t responsible for the incident. The center reviewed safety policies and procedures and re-trained staff, and said it’s confident that, when followed, those existing policies and procedures are sufficient.
Lt. Darrell McLean, a spokesman for the Caswell County Sheriff’s Office, declined comment.
