A 10-year-old girl was released from the hospital Wednesday after being bitten by a mountain lion in Columbiana County.

It didn't happen at any zoo, or out in the wild -- but at home near Lisbon, as a hobby, a family keeps several full-sized lions and mountain lions caged up in their yard.

Homeowner Chris Joseph said the victim, Bailey Rhine Stine, is a family friend who was visiting the home on Lones Road at the time of the incident.

Joseph said her husband was in the cages feeding the lions Monday when the girl wandered over, asking to pet a mountain lion.

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Joseph said her husband told the girl no, but when he turned his back, she went in.

The girl was rushed to East Liverpool City Hospital then airlifted to Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh.

The animal's owners claim they'd been approved by the government to house these animals and that they have all the required shots.

Joseph told NEWS9 her husband would give an interview because they wanted to set the record straight, but when news reporters showed up at the home at the time she asked them to, she wouldn’t answer the door or the phone and ended up calling police.

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Workers at Oglebay's Good Zoo said they do not recommend keeping exotic pets, even if the owner thinks the pet is tame or well-trained.

Zoo officials said exotic pet attacks are very common. Zookeepers said because the way a child moves and the high-pitched noises children make might trigger the attack instinct in a wild animal.

"Any of the big cats or wolf hybrids can kill small child literally in a second if they go for the neck. They're predators and they look at a little child as prey," said Penny Miller, Good Zoo director.

Miller also said many zoos can't accept animals that were pets because oftentimes they are malnourished or weren't properly socialized with their own species.

"Most people think (if) they have a pet lion or tiger cub that a zoo is going to take it when it's mature, and we don't want them," Miller said.

Typically, that means the animal is left to bounce from home to home and is eventually euthanized. While she said she wants every animal to have a good home, that doesn't mean every animal should be a pet.

"It's really not our problem to solve. We recommend that cities have ordinances against these things as pets so these things don't happen in the first place," Miller said.

Stay with NEWS9 and WTOV9.com for continuing coverage.