A South African man who offered paying customers a chance to watch him feed lions has been killed by one of his own cats.
Leon van Biljon, 70, known as “The Lion Man,” (photo) was killed when one of his caged lions bit into his neck as he attempted to repair a fence.
“Leon went in to fix the fence but knows the lions well and turned his back as he was fixing the fence and one came from behind and took his neck,” a Mahala View Lion Lodge employee told the Mirror. “There was nothing anyone could have done to save him.”
Van Biljon kept three lions, named Rambo, Katryn and Nakitain, in cages onsite.
Emergency services had to shoot and kill all three to reach Biljon, who by then had bled to death.
LESSON: You can train an animal to perform tricks or tasks, but you can’t deprogram instinct.