Zoo employees notice big cat with a shoe in its mouth; then staff makes grisly discovery

Employees of a zoo in Pakistan's Punjab province noticed that a big cat had a shoe in its mouth. As workers investigated the strange situation, they quickly made a grisly discovery — a man had been mauled to death by the big cat.

On Wednesday, workers saw a big cat with a shoe in its mouth at the Sherbagh Zoo in Bahawalpur, Pakistan.

"When they cleaned the zoo and the dens, they found the (animal) holding a shoe in its mouth," said Zaheer Anwar, a senior government official in Bahawalpur.

"The staff got suspicious, and then they found a body inside the den," he added.

An official with the rescue service in Bahawalpur told AFP that the victim's legs had been severely mauled.

"It is yet not known who he is and how he got there. It is being investigated. The body looked several hours old," the official said, adding that forensic experts were examining the body.

Officials are not sure how the man got into the big cat enclosure. Authorities did not reveal the identity of the man who was mauled to death in the animal attack.

"Our assessment so far is that this appears to be a lunatic because a sensible person would not jump into the den," Anwar added. "You can see that the den is secured. There are stairs behind the den, maybe he jumped from there."

Anwar identified the animal only as a "big cat," which can be a tiger, lion, jaguar, cougar, leopard, or cheetah.

The Sherbagh Zoo's website notes that it hosts Asiatic lions and Bengal tigers.

"The exhibits are a mix between old style cages and newer moated enclosures," the Sherbagh Zoo's website reads.

"Lions, tigers, and hyenas are housed in more modern moated enclosures," the site adds.

The animal attack fatality in Pakistan comes just days after a zookeeper was mauled to death by a black bear in India. The 23-year-old zookeeper was killed by a Himalayan black bear at the Indira Gandhi Zoological Park, according to the Times of India.

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