Facility 'well run, professional'

Hanson's father said he and his daughter took a two-day road trip from Seattle to Dunlap, California, at the beginning of the year when Hanson's internship began. She was supposed to be there for six months.

"Once there, she gave me the tour and showed me all the big cats there with which she would be working," the father, Paul, said in a statement Wednesday night.

"Of course, Dianna being Dianna, her favorites were the tiger and the lion ... who killed her today," he added.

Cous Cous once appeared on Ellen DeGeneres' television show when he was about three months old. The comedian fed him from a bottle as a handler stood by.

Late Wednesday, some who knew the lion, who had been raised in captivity, were shocked.

Jenny Michaels, the head of The Jungle Jenny Foundation, said she had been in the lion's cage before, accompanied by a park worker .

"I didn't see any type of aggressive behavior," Michaels told CNN's Piers Morgan.

She said the workers at the park were top-notch.

"It was really well run, very professional," she said. "I don't know the circumstances (of the attack) but I can tell you that in my interaction over at Project Survival they have been professional and ... they have run their protocol strictly."