The life expectancy of lions is much lower than that of the antelopes they chase. This is mainly due to a combination of a high cholesterol diet and lack of exercise.
We used sugar bottles but apparently they looked real. A car stopped and waited till "the zombie" got back up before pulling away. We were also using a lot of I believe strawberry syrup for blood, mmmm blood, strawberry blood... Okay I don't know if it tasted good, but knowing who made it and that no one who had to keep in their mouth until the correct time didn't complain.