Shocking amateur video: lions turn against their trainer

When Doug Shepherd, an American expat in Lviv, Ukraine, took his family to the circus, he didn’t expect the lion’s act to turn into a bloodbath. The act was well underway when suddenly, without warning, one of the tigers pounced on the lead trainer.

Doug Shepherd was with his children and elderly parents when the scene occurred. His father is the one who filmed the scene. Contacted by FRANCE 24, Shepherd described the experience as “absolutely horrible”. His three-year-old son was traumatised by the attack.

While watching the footage he had shot, Shepherd noticed that the lions attacked only one person in the ring: their lead trainer. For some reason, they left his assistants alone. The trainer, Oleksie Pinko, can be seen in the video limping out of the ring, injured and bloodied. He survived the attack.