Mum's terror as girl falls into big cats pen at zoo

Published on Tuesday 10 May 2011 17:26

A MOTHER has told how she feared for her daughter's life after the four-year-old fell into an animal enclosure at Edinburgh Zoo.

&#149 Rachael with daughter Robyn, who fell into the pool of dirty water at the big cat enclosure, pictured below

Rachael Wallace-Lane, 44, was visiting the zoo with daughter Robyn when the youngster fell through a barrier and face-first into a pool of dirty water below the big cat enclosure.

There was no animal in the enclosure at the time, but the incident has raised yet more questions about the running of the zoo ahead of an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) tomorrow.

Mrs Wallace-Lane, of Merchiston, said she had been "horrified" by the incident, which took place next to where the zoo's jaguars are housed.

She said Robyn had been walking along a sill designed to be used as a walkway for children when she fell through a window where some of the Perspex screen was missing.

She said: "Robyn was just walking along the sill when she just disappeared because there was nothing in the last frame.

"She fell a couple of feet down into a dirty pond. At that point we did not know there was nothing in the enclosure.

"We didn't know until we got her out because there was no sign of anything."

She added: "My first thought was that the enclosure was next to the black panther, so what was going to be in this one."

Mrs Wallace-Lane, head of the Cyrenians' homeless prevention service, had been visiting the zoo with her daughter and some friends on Saturday.

She said there were no signs warning of the danger, and that three bollards and a piece of tape designed to cordon off the area had fallen down.

When her group returned to the zoo the next day to take pictures and a water sample, nothing had been done to make the area safe, despite the issue being raised with staff.

Robyn was left "traumatised" by the incident and sustained cuts and bruises.

The episode is the latest piece of bad news for the zoo, which is holding an EGM tomorrow following the suspension of two high-profile staff members and the sacking of director of development Anthony McReavy.

A spokeswoman for the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland said: "We can confirm the front of a small empty enclosure, to the left of the big cat walkway, had a large Perspex viewing sheet removed for maintenance purposes.

"This area was cordoned off. However, a child has gone past the safety barriers and climbed a small wall, approximately two and a half feet high, and fallen approximately one and a half feet into rainwater in the empty enclosure.

"A more robust temporary barrier has been installed pending reinstallation of the permanent fixtures this morning."

In 2009 the zoo was ordered to make repairs by the city council ahead of its licence renewal in 2012.