Zoo pleads guilty to tiger death health and safety breaches
South Lakes Safari Zoo Ltd, based in Cumbria, has pleaded guilty to health and safety breaches, after a female keeper was killed by a tiger.
Sarah McClay died at the zoo in Dalton-in-Furness in May 2013, after being attacked by a Sumatran tiger called Padang while she worked.
The zoo was formerly called South Lakes Wild Animal Park.
South Lakes Safari Zoo admitted that on or before 24 May 2013 it failed to ensure the health, safety and welfare at work of employees, including Miss McClay, arising out of and/or in connection with the keeping of big cats.
It also pleaded guilty to failing to ensure that persons not in its employment on the above date were not exposed to risk to their health and safety.
At Preston Crown Court, the prosecution offered no evidence against the firm's sole director, David Gill, who faced individual charges on the same allegations. Formal not guilty verdicts were recorded against him.
Following the hearing, Miss McClay's boyfriend, David Shaw, said: "It's a shame it took this long to come to what was a fairly obvious conclusion but I am pleased we do not have to go through a trial."
Miss McClay suffered "unsurvivable" multiple injuries and was airlifted from the scene to hospital where she was formally pronounced dead.
She had worked at the park for more than two years and was well experienced with working with big cats which she saw as a "privilege".
Her mother Fiona McClay, from Linlithgow, West Lothian, said it was her daughter's "dream job" after she had visited the park as a child. She is expected to attend sentencing on Friday.
The animal was supposed to never have access to the corridor but the male tiger walked straight through a door to where Miss McClay, from Barrow-in-Furness, was as she carried out her cleaning and feeding duties in the house.
When colleagues of Miss McClay rushed in after the attack they found the door to one of the tigers' dens ajar and not locked.
Two internal sliding gates were also open which allowed Padang and his female companion, Alisha, to move in and out of a light den and a dark den to the outside enclosure.
The inquest heard that a bolt on the top of the dark den door - which had been the one open immediately before the attack - was found to be defective.
An environmental health officer for the local authority told the inquest jury that the top spring-loaded bolt could not be held back and it would bang against the frame when it tried to close, which left a gap of between 20mm and 25mm.
The jury found that one or more of the bolts on that door extended so as to prevent it from closing into the frame.
On Wednesday, South Lakes Safari Zoo Ltd accepted its risk assessment did not address sufficiently the risks arising from a failure to maintain the dark den door.
The company said "a more proactive maintenance and inspection regime" should have been in place to ensure that the door functioned efficiently and that its self-closing mechanism worked properly.
It added: "The failure of the door to self-close was a more than trivial cause of harm."
It can now be reported that South Lakes Safari Zoo Ltd pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to two other contraventions of the Health and Safety at Work Act when a zoo keeper fell from a ladder while preparing to feed big cats on July 18 2014.
The company admitted it failed to ensure the health, safety and welfare at work of its employees, including Yasmin Walker, on the above date and also to carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment.
It is expected that the company will receive a financial penalty on Friday.
The prosecution case was brought by Barrow Borough Council, which licenses the park.
Mr Gill, of Furness View, Broughton Road, Dalton-in-Furness, made no comment as he left court.
The tiger was not destroyed following the keeper's death, but was put down in March 2016 because of "welfare complications".