Circus Lions Kill Their Attendant

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30631, 23 December 1964, Page 13

Circus Lions Kill Their Attendant

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) ADELAIDE, December 22.

Four circus lions today escaped, tore a man to pieces, then ate parts of his body.

Horrified police and circus hands watched helplessly as the lions mauled portions of the dead man, George Herzog, aged 50, a circus employee, of Adelaide.

Head high, a piece of the body in its mouth, one lion walked stiff-legged for several yards before tearing again at the mangled human flesh.

The big police squad, armed

with high-powered rifles and shotguns, had been told the lions were relatively harmless. The circus owner and liontamer, Mr Michael O’Connell, prodded one lion back into its cage by using a sharpened 15ft pole. Fifteen police marksmen and two big-game hunters later shot the other three lions dead.

Two dropped instantly, riddled with bullets, but the third bounded toward a group of six and was brought down at 6ft with a bullet in the head by a hunter, William Hambly-Clark. The tragedy and shooting occurred at O’Connell’s circus camp at Wingfield, five miles north of Adelaide. The

camp had taken on the appearance of an African safari. The squad of marksmen closed in from two sides. On a pre-arranged signal, with the two sections of riflemen in position, each man setting his sights on a lion, the order to fire was given. The .303 rifles used were loaded with dumdum bullets. Earlier Mr O’Connell was ordered back by police when he wanted to prod the lions back into their trailer cage. “This will ruin me,” Mr O’Connell said. “I have never had any trouble with lions before. I didn’t want to lose them.”

He said it appeared the lions broke out when Herzog opened a door leading directly into the cage, instead of

■ using a safety system of trap- . doors to feed them. i It was the practice to place i the meat into a small space : at the end of the trailer, i separated from the lions’ ; cages further along the > vehicle. Once the meat was in posis tion, the outside door was . closed. A trap-door between ; the meat and the cage was i opened by remote control ; from outside the trailer. “It appears he preferred to throw the meat straight into ■ the lions this morning,” Mr O’Connell said. A circus clown, Graham Murray, aged 18, gave the

alarm that the four beasts—three lions and a lioness—were loose. Sunlight streaming through

a window in a caravan 50 yards from the lions’ trailer woke him at 8 a.m. “I looked out and saw the lions walking around outside,” he said. “I thought I was dreaming.

“I grabbed my clothes and went across to find the caretaker. Mr Herzog. He usually slept in a truck used to transport tents. “He wasn’t there and I began to get worried. I yelled for him but got no answer. Then I asked two fellows in a truck in the next paddock to help." Before the shooting, one lion had started loping away from the camp. It was headed back by two men in a truck who threw an iron bar at it.