Email
Environmental health officers have found a dead lion in a freezer in a restaurant in West Sussex, according to this Daily Mirror story, accompanied by the picture above.
Did this really happen?
The caption on the picture reads: “Gruesome discovery: How the dead lion may have looked in freezer.” So the picture is mocked up for effect. But we wanted to find out whether the whole incident actually happened.
The Mirror had picked up this nugget from a story that ran originally in the Midhurst and Petworth Observer. The article is about the work of environmental health officers from Chichester district council with a similar eye-catching headline: ‘I’ve seen a dead lion in a freezer’ - the life of an environmental health officer.
According to the report, Ian Brightmore, environmental health manager on Chichester district council, once came across a lion in the freezer.
“When I was working in another area I came across a dead lion in a freezer,” he said. “The food establishment was near a zoo and the owner kept pack hounds so it was food for them, but because it was kept in a place where food for human consumption was stored, of course we had to take action.”
The Mirror simply followed up this lion’s tale, but Brightmore refused to give much more away. It reports:
He is remaining tight-lipped about when or where he found the frozen animal. He said: “When I was working in another area I came across a dead lion in a freezer. The food establishment was near a zoo and the owner kept pack hounds so it was food for them. Because the lion was kept in a place where food for human consumption was stored, of course we had to take action.”
To check the story, I rang Chichester district council. After a wait following an automated response, a human being came on and put me through to the press office. No answer, so I was bounced back to the switchboard. This time I asked for Ian Brightmore.
When I got through to him, I asked about the lion, but he insisted on following protocol and said I had to speak to the press office. “Well while you’re on the phone, is it true,” I asked. His reply was: “Yes, but it was a long time ago,” before falling back on protocol. “You’d better talk to the press office, that’s procedure.”
We’re still waiting for the press office to get back to us.
So according to the man at the heart of the story, it is true, but because of Brightmore’s reluctance to shed more light, the tale is tantalisingly short of details. We don’t know when or where it happened.
As for the restaurant, the lion was the only health code violation so it was allowed to continue trading as normal.
Update: I finally got through to the Chichester district council’s press office, which said there were some mistakes in the original story.
The incident happened 30 years ago outside the west Sussex area and it was not a restaurant, but a “different kind of food establishment”. The spokeswoman said Ian Brightmore did not want to say where the lion was found, however.
;