Zion Wildlife Gardens yet another big cat accident at Zion

NZ Jeremy · 15 Jun 2009

If you could that'd be great..! I have a special interest given that they are Auckland's sub-species...

Boy did we hijack this topic...

madbushfarm · 22 Jun 2009

Guys you may think you hijacked the thread but it's been worth reading. Great posts. Interesting debates great links. I've been off line for a while so I'm just reading through all the posts.

Ta guys

Panthera Puss · 7 Jul 2009

Re: Sumatran Founders

The 1983 studbook (ancient history, I know) indicated 18 worldwide founders who had contributed (i.e. had cubs) to the captive breeding population. However, of this 18, five had not effectively added to the genetic pool, which is presumably where the figure of 13 comes from. There were another 5 who were potential founders but had not bred at that time. It also notes distinct 'Indonesian', 'European' and 'American' lines. It would seem reasonable to assume that the modern figure of 37 is explained by new wild-caught founders, or possibly the re-designation of animals previously not included in the studbook.

NZ Jeremy · 8 Jul 2009

Hmmm... Thanks for the info Panthera, if any more info comes to light in your travels could you let us know..?

I might e-mail Auckland Zoo, presumably Trent the head feline keeper will know or know where to point to...

Panthera Puss · 8 Jul 2009

The zoo I'm attatched to has strong links to one of the top tiger taxonomists, we're hoping for some educational nuggets soon - they may even filter down to idiots like me at the bottom of the food chain! Hopefully the new edition of 'Tigers of the World' ed. Tilson will also fill some of the gaps (I don't think it's been published in the UK yet).

ptig · 13 Jul 2009

Zion tragedy

Back to the original thread. I just watched the girlfriend of Dalu on NZ's 20/20 program. More damning allegations about Craig Busch. I had already heard these before but more verification about the fate of "excess cubs". Craig just seems to threaten legal action. He would be up to his "eyeballs" in legal fees.

NZ Jeremy · 13 Jul 2009

A defamation suit is one of the hardest and most expensive to bring in New Zealand, with all his money problems you could say almost whatever you liked about him...

I see his employment court trial is set to resume soon... Its pissing me off how the media report it as if it was his zoo and his mother stole it off him...

ptig · 14 Jul 2009

Relevant authorities

Who are the relevant authorities in NZ for animal abuse cases? Is it RSPCA or MAF?

NZ Jeremy · 14 Jul 2009

Both, MAF is the government wing and do inspections more around commercial related animal "use" while the RSPCA tend to cover private "use", mainly pet ownership etc...

Chlidonias · 13 Jun 2012

an interesting twist in the Dalu mauling tragedy in 2009:
Mauled keeper entered on false passport - Yahoo! New Zealand News

13 June 2012

The South African animal keeper killed by a tiger at Northland's Zion Wildlife Gardens probably entered the country illegally on his younger brother's passport, a hearing has been told.

Dalu Mncube was fatally mauled by a tiger while cleaning an enclosure at the Whangarei-based gardens in 2009 but now there is doubt around his real identity, the Northern Advocate reports.

A pre-coronial inquest hearing into his death on Tuesday heard Mr Mncube was also known as Clifford Mncube, Dalubuhle Ncube and Darlington Tembo.

In 2005, Zion Wildlife Gardens' operator Craig Busch had written a letter to Darlington Tembo - then working at the Rhino and Lion Nature Reserve in Krugersdorp, South Africa - offering him a job at Zion.

"Immigration New Zealand believed it highly likely that the deceased [Mr Mncube] entered New Zealand on a false passport," Constable Andrea Magill told the hearing.

She said police inquiries revealed he entered New Zealand in 2005 on a South African passport under the name of 19-year-old Clifford Mncube. However, he was in fact about 27.

He then obtained a work permit.

Mr Mncube had told Zion operator Patricia Busch that his real name was Dalubuhle Ncube and he was born between 1975 and 1978.

As a boy, he said his grandmother had used his younger brother Clifford's passport to get him out of Zimbabwe.

Const Magill said Mr Mncube's true identity had not been confirmed and was unlikely to be.

Coroner Brandt Shortland will release his findings on Mr Mncube's identity in three to five days.
Click to expand...

Chlidonias · 30 Sep 2012

Inquest into tiger-mauling death starts

1 October 2012

A hearing gets under way on Monday into the death of a South African animal keeper killed by a tiger at Northland's Zion Wildlife Gardens.

Dalu Mncube was fatally mauled by a tiger while cleaning an enclosure at the Whangarei-based gardens in May 2009.

Eight visitors to the park witnessed the attack and staff shot the 260kg tiger, Abu, to recover the body.

Northland coroner Brandt Shortland will oversee a five-day inquest into his death in Whangarei.

Zion was ordered to pay $60,000 to Mr Mncube's family by the Department of Labour after admitting breaching health and safety laws.

It is believed Mr Mncube entered New Zealand on a false passport, but his true identity will not be revealed until the end of the inquest.
Click to expand...

zooboy28 · 1 Oct 2012

Coverage of First Day of Inquest

Story here: Zion Wildlife Gardens | Gunshot Might Have Saved... | Stuff.co.nz

A big cat handler has told a court how he watched his workmate viciously mauled to death, saying he would have survived if weapons had been readily available.

The coroner's inquest into the death of Clifford (Dalu) Mncube began at Whangarei District Court this afternoon.

The 26-year-old Zimbabwean-born man was employed by Zion Wildlife Gardens when he was killed by Bengal white tiger Abu on May 27, 2009. Abu had bitten another handler three months earlier.

Mr Mncube moved to New Zealand from South Africa in 2005 and in March 2007 he met Sharon Arnott, to whom he subsequently became engaged and had a child.

But their marriage plans were tragically ended when a routine enclosure cleaning went wrong.

Mr Mncube and colleague Martin Ferreira – the first witness called – entered the pen to clear it of faeces and bones but almost as soon as they started their work the adult male tiger attacked Mr Mncube.

He was bitten on the leg and despite landing a flurry of punches to the rare white tiger, was pulled to the ground and dragged along by his shoulder.

Mr Ferreira said the senior handler was asking for help but was “really calm” at first.

The situation quickly deteriorated when Abu dragged Mr Mncube from a den box along the fence line.

Though the tiger had been punched, hit with a block of wood and sprayed in the face with a fire extinguisher, it was there to “finish the job he started”, Mr Ferreira said.

“He was in killing mode,” he said.

At one stage Mr Mncube's head was completely inside the tiger's mouth with his jaws clamped down on his neck.

“I could hear Abu crushing his head,” Mr Ferreira told the court.

Shortly afterwards, a staff member used a cattle prod on the tiger but it had little effect as he dragged the handler's bloodied body away to the centre of the enclosure.

Counsel for Mr Mncube's fiancee Juliet Golightly asked Mr Ferreira whether a gunshot would have been more effective in helping to free its prey and potentially have saved his life.

“I believe so,” he said.

Staff had met park operator Patricia Busch after Demetri Price was bitten on the leg in February 2009 and voiced concerns for their safety, but she said they were financially constrained, Mr Ferreira said.

“I suggested a Taser because it puts out a bit more force, she said there was no money available and she bought a normal cattle prod."

Though there were firearms on site, he said they were “a fair way away” and in a serious mauling it would take too long to retrieve them.

Abu was eventually shot by Mr Ferreira after Mr Mncube received medical attention.

Ms Golightly's questioning also highlighted the fact there were no official training protocols.

Mr Ferreira said he did not receive any written information when he started at the park and instead learned by following Mr Mncube around.

There was also a suggestion staff were told to change routines when Agriculture and Forestry Ministry officials were present on one of their fortnightly visits.

“I suppose she didn't want MAF to see us cleaning inside the enclosure when the cats were out,” Mr Ferreira said.

Morale among staff before Mr Mncube's death was low with Craig Busch – known as The Lion Man – threatening the Zimbabwean with deportation, he said.

“It wasn't a nice time to work at the park when all the politics were going on – the cats were stressed out in the mornings,” he said.

“Craig would move around the cats at night and staff didn't feel safe because we didn't know what he was up to.”

The inquest is expected to last the rest of the week.
Click to expand...

I don't really understand the bit I bolded, why shoot the tiger then?

Chlidonias · 1 Oct 2012

zooboy28 said:

"Abu was eventually shot by Mr Ferreira after Mr Mncube received medical attention."

I don't really understand the bit I bolded, why shoot the tiger then?
Click to expand...

at the time of the incident there were differing accounts as to what happened, whether the cat was shot after removal of the body/injured man (as stated here), or during the attack to try and save the victim, or to retrieve the body because there was no safe way to do it otherwise. It seems from the various articles that Mncube was seriously injured, removed from the enclosure, died before an ambulance arrived, and the tiger was shot either to get Mncube out or directly after. Note that the bolded bit is the journalist's words, so cannot necessarily be taken as fact.

Chlidonias · 2 Oct 2012

Zion had history of not reporting serious issues - Yahoo! New Zealand News

2 October 2012

An inquest has heard Zion Wildlife Gardens had a history of not reporting serious issues involving its big cats.

A coroner's hearing is being held for worker Clifford Dalu MnCube this week.

It's heard how management failed to tell the then Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of several incidents.

These included a boy being bitten by a lion cub and requiring hospital care, a cheetah escaping in 2011, and a fence being blown down which led to a lion escaping.

The park was being operated by Craig Busch and then later his mother Patricia, when these incidents happened.
Click to expand...

driftaguy · 2 Oct 2012

Chlidonias said: ↑

Zion had history of not reporting serious issues - Yahoo! New Zealand News
Click to expand...

Hmmm, a fence blowing down. Maybe the builders should have been paying more attention to that rather than... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUdcmEH6dEQ

Chlidonias · 5 Oct 2012

Dead big cat handler's real name revealed

5 October 2012

The identity of a big cat handler who died when he was attacked by a tiger at a Northland wildlife park has been confirmed - three years after his death.

The coroner looking into the death of the man known as Dalu Mncube at Zion Wildlife Gardens in Whangarei in May 2009 has determined that his real name was Dalubuhle Ncube and was eight years' older than his documents said he was.

Coroner Brandt Shortland, who has been overseeing the inquest into the death this week, conducted an identification hearing in June and only released his findings from that on Friday.

He found that Mr Ncube was born in Zimbabwe and entered South Africa under false pretences.

Once there he obtained identification documents under a false name with which he gained a South Africa passport to come to New Zealand and work at the park.

Mr Shortland said Mr Ncube had used a number of different names, including Darlington Tembo, Clifford Mncube and Dalu Mncube in his life.

The passport used to come to New Zealand listed his nationality as South Africa and his birth date as October 7, 1986.

Mr Shortland said he was, in fact, born on July 13, 1978 in Zimbabwe.

The inquest heard Mr Ncube died on after being attacked by Bengal white tiger Abu while he was cleaning out its enclosure.

The inquest was told safety procedures at the park were inadequate, the tiger had attacked another worker a month earlier, it took 10 shots to kill Abu and Mr Ncube feared he would be deported by immigration authorities.
Click to expand...

AskAlice · 5 Oct 2012

This is a report on the Testimony of Dr Barry Wards of MPI

It makes for damning reading scared of A facebook page? You have got to be kidding.

Fear kept park open, court told - National - NZ Herald News

Chlidonias · 5 Oct 2012

the text of the article linked to above (so I can bold some bits). Anybody seen the movie Idiocracy? The farcical nature of the Lion Man chronicles continues to grow!

Fears of an international backlash deterred the then Ministry of Agriculture from considering closing down Whangarei's Zion Wildlife Gardens, despite six attacks by the big cats in the park, a court has heard.

Dr Barry Wards, a specialist adviser to the ministry, yesterday told an inquest into the death of Clifford (Dalu) MnCube that the political backlash from supporters of Lion Man Craig Busch after he was sacked from the park reached the very top of Government, including Prime Minister John Key.

The ministry determined that based on the level of support Mr Busch had, revoking the park's operating licence would seriously harm New Zealand's international reputation, he said.

An online campaign was launched, particularly by Mr Busch's UK-based supporters, to help him reunite with the big cats after he was sacked by his mother, Patricia, in 2008. He returned after new owners took charge and renamed it Zion Wildlife Kingdom in February.

Dr Wards was questioned extensively by Anthony Jackson, lawyer for Mr MnCube's partner Sharon Arnott, on the ministry's concerns about safety and actions it took to remedy the situation. He said closing the park would have put the welfare of 40 big cats at risk.

Dr Wards said politically, it would have been an extremely difficult decision for the Crown to make to either export, euthanase or transfer the animals elsewhere in New Zealand.

A contingency plan was drawn up and the then minister, David Carter, was briefed on its contents.

The view of his supporters, he said, was that Mr Busch was being removed from the animals he reared.

"If that decision [to close the park] was made, there would have been an outcry ... directed at the ministry."

Asked why the ministry did not issue an operator's licence to Mrs Busch after Mr MnCube died, he said she was not fully aware of the requirements in relation to the operation and containment of animals.

Specialist adviser Howard Hamilton said there had been five animal attacks since January 2007 on either park staff or the public before Mr MnCube's death in May 2009. The ministry was not informed about a staff member being bitten in January 2007 until June 2009.

Closing the inquest, Northland Coroner Brandt Shortland indicated he would make adverse comments in his draft findings but said all parties would be given an opportunity to respond.
Click to expand...

AskAlice · 8 Oct 2012

Made public today

OIA C.busch MAF Licence

Chlidonias · 8 Oct 2012

wow. That's pretty appalling stuff to read. How he ever managed to get to keep big cats in NZ I will never know!!!!!!

*Of course it is all lies brought out by the enemies of the Almighty Lord Busch and they shall burn forever in torment for the sacrilege they have cast upon Him.

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