Eight British tourists are suing a South African safari park after they became trapped by a pride of wild lions when their tour vehicle overturned.
The group are claiming hundreds of thousands of pounds for injuries and post-traumatic stress allegedly suffered when they were exposed to the “threatening conduct of the lions” at Sanbona Wildlife Reserve northeast of Cape Town.
One of the animals also stole a boot from the tourists, they say.
Papers lodged at Cape Town High Court claim that the injuries were due to the irresponsible actions of Natasha Van der Merwe, a park employee.
According to the papers, the vehicle she was driving toppled over as she tried to reverse away from a pride of lions in March 2007.
The lions then approached the stranded tourists, causing them distress.
Richard Cornish, from Wimbledon,southwest London, who was on a honeymoon with his wife Sandy, suffered concussion, three broken ribs and internal bleeding during the accident, the papers claim. His wife suffered “severe shock and anguish”.
Other members of the group say that they suffered heavy bruises and post- traumatic stress disorder and are claiming a total of £582,000 for loss of income and medical bills.
One of the group said yesterday: “The lions were about a metre and a half from us, and one went off with my boot.”
Michael Hawker, 71, from Solihull, said: “The whole experience was terrifying and frightening, and I’ll do anything to make sure nobody like us has to go through that again. We were lucky it wasn’t worse — it could have happened to people with children.”
The group was eventually driven to safety by another vehicle.
Counsellor Well, do you have any idea of what you want to do?
Anchovy Yes, yes I have.
Counsellor What?
Anchovy (boldly) Lion taming.
Counsellor Well yes. Yes. Of course, it's a bit of a jump isn't it? I mean, er, chartered accountancy to lion taming in one go. You don't think it might be better if you worked your way towards lion taming, say, via banking?
Anchovy No, no, no, no. No. I don't want to wait. At nine o'clock tomorrow I want to be in there, taming.
Counsellor Fine, fine. But do you, do you have any qualifications?
Anchovy Yes, I've got a hat.
Counsellor A hat?
Anchovy Yes, a hat. A lion taming hat. A hat with 'lion tamer' on it. I got it at Harrods. And it lights up saying 'lion tamer' in great big neon letters, so that you can tame them after dark when they're less stroppy.
Counsellor I see, I see.
Anchovy And you can switch it off during the day time, and claim reasonable wear and tear as allowable professional expenses under paragraph 335C...
Counsellor Yes, yes, yes, I do follow, Mr Anchovy, but you see the snag is... if I now call Mr Chipperfield and say to him, 'look here, I've got a forty-five-year-old chartered accountant with me who wants to become a lion tamer', his first question is not going to be 'does he have his own hat?' He's going to ask what sort of experience you've had with lions.
Anchovy Well I ... I've seen them at the zoo.
Counsellor Good, good, good.
Anchovy Lively brown furry things with short stumpy legs and great long noses. I don't know what all the fuss is about, I could tame one of those. They look pretty tame to start with.
Counsellor And these, er, these lions ... how high are they?
Anchovy (indicating a height of one foot) Well they're about so high, you know. They don't frighten me at all.
Counsellor Really. And do these lions eat ants?
Anchovy Yes, that's right.
Counsellor Er, well, Mr Anchovy ... I'm afraid what you've got hold of there is an anteater.
Anchovy A what?
Counsellor An anteater. Not a lion. You see a lion is a huge savage beast, about five feet high, ten feet long, weighing about four hundred pounds, running forty miles per hour, with masses of sharp pointed teeth and nasty long razor-sharp claws that can rip your belly open before you can say 'Eric Robinson', and they look like this.
The counsellor produces large picture of a lion and shows to Mr Anchovy who screams and passes out.
... Cut back to office: Mr Anchovy sits up with a start.
Counsellor Now, shall I call Mr Chipperfield?
Anchovy Er, no, no, no. I think your idea of making the transition to lion taming via easy stages, say via insurance...
Counsellor Or banking.
Anchovy Or banking, yes, yes, banking that's a man's life, isn't it? Banking, travel, excitement, adventure, thrills, decisions affecting people's lives. Counsellor Jolly good, well, er, shall I put you in touch with a bank?
Anchovy Yes.
Counsellor Fine.
Anchovy Er... no, no, no. Look, er, it's a big decision, I'd like a couple of weeks to think about it... er... you know, don't want to jump into it too quickly. Maybe three weeks. I could let you know definitely then, I just don't want to make this definite decision. I'm er... (continues muttering nervously to himsel)
Counsellor (turning to camera) Well this is just one of the all too many cases on our books of chartered accountancy. The only way that we can fight this terrible debilitating social disease, is by informing the general public of its consequences, by showing young people that it's just not worth it. So, so please... give generously... to this address: The League for Fighting Chartered Accountancy, 55 Lincoln House, Basil Street, London, SW3.
If someone would have had a firearm this lawsuit would be null and void. I am not advocating shooting the lions I'm saying that firing a weapon if the lions had got to close or just having the weapon would have comforted the tourist until help arrived.
