A lion is pictured at Quebec’s Granby Zoo in 2008.John Morstad/The Globe and Mail
An employee at the Granby Zoo in Quebec was injured but is now in stable condition after a lion mauled her Monday morning as she was preparing the felines for the day's viewing.
"We're still under shock," said Paul Gosselin, general director of the zoo, which bills itself as the largest in Quebec.
The employee was hospitalized after suffering cuts and broken neck bones but is conscious and able to talk, he said.
The employee is a keeper who usually tends to the lions, zoo spokeswoman Hélène Bienvenue said in an interview.
Mr. Gosselin said the employees were readying the animals for the day. "It's a morning drill that they are all doing in the zoo, and she was doing the regular drill."
The attack unfolded shortly before 9 a.m., an hour before the doors open, in a pen where the zoo's three lions spent the night. The keeper found herself confined in an area with a female lion, which attacked her by biting her in the back, Mr. Gosselin said.
Another staffer came to her rescue by spraying the lion with water and carbon dioxide, Ms. Bienvenue said.
The lion was later confined indoors and the enclosure closed to the public for the day.
The investigation will include a probe by the province's workers' compensation board.
Mr. Gosselin said the injured woman is in her early 20s and has worked at the zoo since 2011.
He said it was the first time such an incident had occurred at the zoo, one of the province's major tourist draws.
"The zoo is one big family, and when something like this happens we are all affected by it," Mr. Gosselin said, adding the zoo has offered counselling to employees.
Granby is about 80 kilometres east of Montreal.
The zoo was recently in the news after one of its three gorillas died after a severe cold.
According to past media reports, the zoo has two female lions, named Grésil and Kao.
Zoo officials would not say which of the two was involved in the attack.
With files from The Canadian Press.
Tu Thanh Ha