The deadly lion attack at the Conservators Center in Caswell County has raised many questions about safety standards.
The Conservators Center has been closed since the attack, and the Center has neither commented on their procedures, nor how the lion was able to escape it's enclosure.
So we went to the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro that also houses lions among other deadly animals to see what kind of safety protocols are in place. Just to be clear, the North Carolina Zoo has no affiliation with the Conservators Center.
"AZA accreditation is a process zoos go through, it's really just a set of standards, the highest standards that are in the profession that zoos have to meet in order to get that accreditation," Jennifer Ireland with the North Carolina Zoo said.
AZA is short for The Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
"There are only around 230 zoos in the US that are accredited, and there are thousands of zoos in the county, so really once you meet that standard you really are one of the best zoos in the country," Ireland said.
The AZA monitors and inspects safety.
"Part of being an AZA member, one of the standards they have is you have to do dangerous animal drills," Ireland said. "You also have animal escape drills, people in dangerous animal exhibit drills every year so we practice this sort of thing hoping of course that we never have to use it.”
But that's not to say zoos and animal facilities that are not AZA accredited do not have strict safety measures.
"Accreditation does come down to resources to a degree, but there are plenty of small zoos out there with limited budgets that are AZA accredited," Ireland said. "That being said, there are zoos out there that are not AZA accredited that have as strict safety policies and procedures as AZA zoos do."
Ireland says the entire zoo community was heartbroken over the attack at the Conservators Center.
"This event that happened recently at the Conservators Center just gives us the opportunity to say 'oh gosh' we need to look at our safety standards again to make sure we’re doing the best that we can 'cause it’s a scary thing for the keepers to think one of their colleagues in the business has just lost their life and that an animal lost their life," Ireland said. "We don’t know what happened, regardless of what happened we want to make sure we’re doing everything the way we should and reviewing all of our protocols."
The Conservators Centers has not commented on what safety measures it has in place, but did acknowledge its lack of accreditation on its website, noting "facilities with more limited income must carefully choose how to allocate their resources."