An excerpt from NatGeo, which I find to be right on.

NatGeo asked two leading big cat experts to weigh in on the tragedy:
Craig Packer, a 2012 National Geographic Waitt grantee and ecologist at the University of Minnesota; and conservation scientist Luke Dollar, grant-program director of the National Geographic Society's Big Cats Initiative.

CP: Lions attract a lot of attention: Lion Country Safari, the Lion King, Born Free, Chronicles of Narnia, the Cowardly Lion, etc. They are big fluffy mammals with cute cubs and affectionate family relationships.

Most of the time they seem relaxed and cuddly—so it's easy to forget that they react to meat with the reflexive instincts of a shark. Ten years ago Roy Horne (of Siegfried and Roy) was attacked by a tiger that they had handled for years—these attacks happen when people forget about the shark inside.

Can wild animals like lions be domesticated?

LD: To take a big cat and treat it as a pet is ill advised. It really is wonderful to love and respect these creatures, but it is truly folly [to think] that one can commune and be friends with them. We have learned that lesson over and over, whether it's with bears or big cats or venomous snakes.

We have this fascination [with dangerous animals such as lions] because of their potential lethality, but for some reason we still cross the line that should never be crossed. ... Anthropomorphization is a dangerous thing. These are wild animals—this is not Simba from the Lion King.


California Death Prompts Questions About Lion Attacks