The worker who was killed by an escaped lion at a North Carolina zoo has been identified as a 22-year-old intern whose family\u2026<\/b>
\nThe worker who was killed by an escaped lion at a North Carolina zoo has been identified as a 22-year-old intern whose family says she died \u201cfollowing her passion.\u201d
Alexandra Black, an intern at the Conservators Center in Burlington, was mauled Sunday by a beast that broke out of a locked enclosure during a routine cleaning.
\u201cShe was a beautiful young woman who had just started her career,\u201d her family said in a statement to local outlets .
\u201cThere was a terrible accident and we are mourning. But she died following her passion.\u201d
The recent graduate of Indiana State University had started working at the zoological center 10 days before the attack.
It was her fourth unpaid internship, which she\u2019d taken, \u201cbecause she really wanted to make a career of working with animals,\u201d the family said.
On her social media pages, Black wrote that she wanted to eventually become a zookeeper. A recent picture of the young woman showed a wolf \u201ckissing\u201d her nose.
Officials at the animal center, home to 14 lions, said they were \u201cdevastated by the loss of a human life\u201d and would shutter until further notice.
\u201cThis is the worst day of my life. We\u2019ve lost a person. We\u2019ve lost an animal. We have lost the faith in ourselves a little today,\u201d Mindy Stinner, executive director of the Conservators Center, said to ABC 11 Sunday.
The center explained in a statement that a team, led by a trained animal keeper, had been cleaning the lion\u2019s enclosure when the big cat, named Matthai, somehow left the space \u201cand quickly killed one person.\u201d
The male lion, who had previously been described on the zoological center\u2019s website as \u201ca little nervous by nature,\u201d was shot and killed, according to CBS News. His page on the website has since been taken down.<\/p>\n