Overview

• Joanne Cabban, a New South Wales schoolteacher, remains in stable condition at Brisbane’s Princess Alexandra Hospital and is scheduled for additional surgery after losing her arm.
• Workplace Health and Safety Queensland and the Queensland Police Service have launched investigations focused on enclosure procedures and staff interactions.
• Darling Downs Zoo reopened on July 8 but suspended all lion encounters and confirmed there is no CCTV coverage of the holding pen where the attack occurred.
• Co-owner Steve Robinson has said the lioness was playing rather than attacking and affirmed that the animal will not be put down.
• Resurfaced footage from 2023 showing a keeper kissing a lion through the enclosure mesh has intensified public scrutiny of close human-lion contact.