Zoo fined £255,000 over death of keeper mauled by tiger
A zoo has been fined £255,000 over the death of a keeper who was mauled by a Sumatran tiger.
Sarah McClay, 24, suffered "unsurvivable" injuries after the tiger pounced on her at South Lakes Safari Zoo in Dalton-in-Furness, Cumbria, on May 24, 2013.
The company, whose sole director David Gill founded the zoo, entered guilty pleas at Preston Crown Court on Wednesday to contravening health and safety laws on the day of the tragedy.
An inquest into Ms McClay's death in 2014 heard that the male tiger, named Padang, had walked through an open door from the tiger's "dark den" that led on to the keepers' corridor.
She was airlifted to hospital with devastating head and neck injuries but was pronounced formally dead on arrival.
The inquest heard that the tigers and keepers should have been kept apart by a series of sliding doors. But Padrang was able to access the corridor after a faulty bolt stopped the so-called 'dark door' from locking properly.
The zoo company accepted it had failed to properly consider the risks from a failure of the dark den door - labelled in court as "the last line of defence" for the animal keepers.
In a tribute, Ms McClay's family said she was a "passionate" woman with a "devotion" to wildlife in a fundraising page set up in her memory.