Meanwhile in Russia: Circus Trainer Attacked by His Lions, Gives People a Real Show (Video)

Photo: Henning Visser (Getty Images)

Years ago, Radiohead sang a song called “Karma Police.” In it, Thom Yorke sings about the aforementioned karma police and how they should “arrest this man” for some reason. While we don’t spend our days dissecting what exactly this song means, we do use the term to refer to any time karma finally caught up to someone.

This is exactly what happened recently in Russia when a lion trainer was attacked by the same lions he spent years training to entertain crowds. And it all happened in front of a packed house.

If you didn’t realize it already, lions are wild animals that really don’t like being told what to do. So, in order to get them to stand, spin, and wave to a crowd, they need to be taught. While we don’t know exactly how the lions at this Russian circus were trained, based on the trainer’s use of a stick to bat them away during the assault, we can only assume it’s fairly brutal.

Trainer Maxim Orlov received wounds on his arms and legs when one of the lions he trains attacked him twice during a frenzied few minutes at a circus in Russia’s Moshkovo, Novosibirsk region. The craziest thing about this story is that it all happened in front of spectators and it was caught on camera and uploaded to the internet.

After viewing the footage, we learned two important things. The first is that lions really don’t belong in a show for people’s amusement. The second is that lions do what they want. And when what they want is to bite and scratch you, regardless of training, they will.

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