{"id":927224,"date":"2019-04-05T10:34:50","date_gmt":"2019-04-05T17:34:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.peta.org\/?p=927224"},"modified":"2024-04-08T15:04:30","modified_gmt":"2024-04-08T22:04:30","slug":"lion-trainer-ukraine-circus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peta.org\/news\/lion-trainer-ukraine-circus\/","title":{"rendered":"VIDEO: Children Scream As Lion Goes After Abusive Circus Trainer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A lion forced to perform in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.peta.org\/issues\/animals-in-entertainment\/circuses\/\">circus<\/a> in Lugansk, Ukraine, pounced on 32-year-old <a href=\"https:\/\/www.peta.org\/features\/big-cats-lions-tigers-circus\/\">lion handler<\/a> Hamada Kouta mid-act on March 23. The handler sustained injuries to his arms, legs, and back. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/news\/world\/1109717\/Lion-animal-circus-news-video-Ukraine-bite-attack-Hamada-Kouta\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">&#8220;[O]ne tooth was inside the muscle and it is serious,&#8221;<\/a> he said. Children and other audience members screamed as the lion took him down. The horrifying incident was caught on video:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe allowfullscreen frameborder=\"0\" width=\"100%\" height=\"573\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"molvideoplayer\" title=\"MailOnline Embed Player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/embed\/video\/1898392.html\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I was covered in blood,&#8221; Kouta said after. The handler\u2014who can be seen in the video trying to fight the lion off with a large stick\u2014blamed the incident on the lions&#8217; stressful schedule, admitting that the animals were forced to perform immediately after arriving in Lugansk. <strong>This is far from surprising.<\/strong> Circuses routinely cart lions and other animals from town to town in barren cages and deprive them of opportunities to fulfill their basic needs to exercise, roam, socialize, forage, and play. Many wild animals used for entertainment are forced to eat, drink, sleep, defecate, and urinate in the same place. Sometimes, the only time these animals are let out of cages is for their brief performances\u2014when they&#8217;re subjected to whippings and roaring crowds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Know what else isn&#8217;t surprising? This entire incident.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Lions are big, dangerous predators who have teeth and claws that they use to protect themselves. Those forced to perform in circuses suffer psychologically. They&#8217;re <a href=\"https:\/\/www.peta.org\/about-peta\/faq\/how-do-circuses-train-animals\/\">trained<\/a> using punishment and food deprivation (although they can never actually be tamed) and denied everything that&#8217;s natural and important to them. It&#8217;s no wonder that some snap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.peta.org\/news\/video-children-scream-lion-attacks-circus-performer-mid-show\/\">An almost identical incident occurred in France less than two years ago.<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Since 1990, in the U.S. alone, 130 captive big cats and 25 humans have died and more than 280 humans have been injured in similar incidents. We shouldn&#8217;t be shocked when wild animals act like wild animals. Enslaving and abusing living beings for entertainment is never acceptable. Please, never buy a ticket to a circus that uses animals\u2014attend only those that use <a href=\"https:\/\/www.peta.org\/lifestyle\/entertainment\/animal-free-circuses\/\">willing human performers<\/a>. Click below to do more:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-16018d1d wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-large-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-narwhal-background-color has-background wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/headlines.peta.org\/take-action-end-animal-circus-acts\/#action\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Speak Up for Animals Used for Entertainment in Circus Shows<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<input class=\"fooboxshare_post_id\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"927224\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;I was covered in blood,&#8221; the handler said. Here&#8217;s why it&#8217;s not surprising that a big, dangerous predator with teeth and claws chose to protect himself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":184,"featured_media":927266,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","beyondwords_generate_audio":"","beyondwords_integration_method":"","beyondwords_project_id":"","beyondwords_content_id":"","beyondwords_preview_token":"","beyondwords_player_content":"","beyondwords_player_style":"","beyondwords_language_code":"","beyondwords_language_id":"","beyondwords_title_voice_id":"","beyondwords_body_voice_id":"","beyondwords_summary_voice_id":"","beyondwords_error_message":"","beyondwords_disabled":"","beyondwords_delete_content":"","beyondwords_podcast_id":"","beyondwords_hash":"","publish_post_to_speechkit":"","speechkit_hash":"","speechkit_generate_audio":"","speechkit_project_id":"","speechkit_podcast_id":"","speechkit_error_message":"","speechkit_disabled":"","speechkit_access_key":"","speechkit_error":"","speechkit_info":"","speechkit_response":"","speechkit_retries":"","speechkit_status":"","speechkit_updated_at":"","_speechkit_link":"","_speechkit_text":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[22,352,26,68,446,54,61,2,56],"tags":[],"placement":[447],"section":[],"class_list":["post-927224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-animals-in-entertainment","category-big-cats","category-circuses","category-entertainment","category-fb-instant-articles","category-graphic","category-lifestyle","category-main-issues","category-viral","placement-blog"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>VIDEO: Children Scream As Lion Goes After Circus Trainer | PETA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Find out why it&#039;s not surprising that a big, dangerous predator with teeth and claws chose to protect himself\u2014and how you can help animals like him.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.peta.org\/news\/lion-trainer-ukraine-circus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"VIDEO: Children Scream As Lion Goes After Circus Trainer | PETA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Find out why it&#039;s not surprising that a big, dangerous predator with teeth and claws chose to protect himself\u2014and how you can help animals like him.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.peta.org\/news\/lion-trainer-ukraine-circus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"PETA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/officialpeta\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-04-05T17:34:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-04-08T22:04:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.peta.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/ukarine-circus-lion-handler-incident.gif\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"634\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"340\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Katherine Sullivan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@peta\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@peta\" 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