Sea lion attacks Cairns schoolboy at Taronga Zoo
JUST three days ago, Jack Lister was savagely bitten by a sea lion in a bizarre zoo stage show attack - but he still wants to go to school tomorrow.
After all, the year 6 student from St Francis Xavier’s School at Manunda has quite a story to tell.
It was every child’s dream when Jack, who was on holidays with his family, was asked to participate in the sea lion show at Sydney’s Taronga Zoo last Friday.
His 15-year-old sister Madi took a photo of Jack, who grinned as he shook hands with the animal.
But as Jack turned away, the sea lion launched at him, biting his stomach and tearing through the flesh.
He tried to run, but it attacked again – this time biting him on the back, above his right hip.
"I think it smelled me and it wanted to eat me," Jack said from his hospital bed.
"There was blood. I could see the fat where he’d ripped into my stomach."
Jack’s father Andrew Lister was in western Sydney on business at the time and couldn’t believe his ears when his partner phoned him from the zoo in a panic.
"It is just absolutely nuts," he told The Cairns Post from Sydney yesterday.
"It’s a well-rehearsed animal, so to speak – it’s just lashed out at him.
"It was an absolute freak accident."
Jack has spent three nights in the Sydney Children’s Hospital at Randwick.
He hopes to be released today to board a late flight back to Cairns with his family.
"I don’t think he’ll be back at school on Tuesday, although he’ll want to go – he’s got the best story in the world," Mr Lister said.
"The main thing at the moment is he’s just bored, he doesn’t want to be in hospital stuck to a drip."
Mr Lister said the family was happy to let Jack, a keen BMX rider and skateboarder, have his 15 minutes of fame.
The 11-year-old has even shown some showbiz nous during his media
interviews.
"He insisted on having his Red Bull hat on in the photos," Mr Lister said. He said ‘Dad, I might get a sponsorship’. "He’s very switched on."
While Jack is now in a stable condition and in high spirits, Mr Lister admitted there were real fears for his health initially.
"Because he is so scrawny, they (doctors) thought where it bit there might be some internal dramas," he said.
"But there was nothing there, it just went through his fat layer."
Not surprisingly, no one at the hospital had ever dealt with a sea lion bite and Jack’s treatment was delayed while doctors scrambled to find the best way to treat him.
Doctors phoned seal parks across the world to find out the risks of bacterial infection, delaying Jack’s
treatment.
But even after all he has been through, Jack is keen to take up Taronga Zoo’s invitation to go back at a later date.
"They asked if he wanted to go back some time and he said ‘Oh yeah!’," Mr Lister said.
"He’s a tough little bugger."
A Taronga Zoo spokesman told media the "encounter" section of the sea lion show would be cancelled until an investigation into the incident was completed.
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Bizarre attack: Cairns schoolboy Jack Lister, 11, pictured with his father Andrew, is recovering from a sea lion bite to his stomach.
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