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(ATTN: UPDATES throughout with more info)
GORYEONG, South Korea, Aug. 14 (Yonhap) — A lioness was shot dead Monday about an hour after escaping from a private tourist animal farm in the southern county of Goryeong, officials said.
The animal broke out of its cage at the farm in Goryeong, 233 kilometers southeast of Seoul, at 7:24 a.m. About an hour later, police and officials located the animal in a forest next to the farm and shot it to death, officials said.
The county government had earlier sent an emergency text message alerting residents to the escape and sent police and fire authorities to locate the loose animal.
The farm was designated by Goryeong as a tourist animal farm in February last year. The farm obtained a license to raise only cattle, not lions, but had been supposedly raising the lioness illegally, officials said.
“Even residents in the area or the head of the village didn’t know the farm was secretly raising the lioness,” a county official said, adding the county is looking into the circumstance.
This image provided by fire authorities shows a lioness located in a forest in Goryeong, 233 kilometers southeast of Seoul. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
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