The trip of a lifetime to celebrate a Scottish woman's 60th birthday
turned brutal when two supposedly tame cheetahs attacked the woman at a
game reserve in South Africa.
Violet D'Mello and her husband Archie were allowed to get up close and
pet two brother cheetahs, Mark and Monty, at the Kragga Kamma Game Park
in Port Elizabeth last weekend.
"They seemed to be pretty docile. They said they were hand reared from
cubs and were extremely tame and one could you know stroke them and not
only that lay on them and they'll do nothing to you," Archie D'Mello
said.
The couple had just taken photos with the animals and were still in the
petting area when one of the cats grabbed an 8-year-old girl by the leg.
Violet D'Mello tried to stop the attack. After the girl ran for safety,
D'Mello said both cheetahs turned on her in a savage attack that lasted
for more than three minutes.
Incredibly, Archie D'Mello kept taking pictures, documenting the
horrific scene as the animals bit and scratched his wife's head, legs
and stomach.
Violet D'Mello said her instinct took over while a guide tried to pull the cats off of her.
"Something inside me just said, 'Don't move. Don't move at all. Don't react, just play dead'," she told the Port Elizabeth Herald.
Miraculously, Violet D'Mello walked away with no life-threatening
wounds. The 60-year-old lost a lot of blood during the attack and has a
lot of stitches on both her thighs and her scalp, her husband said.
Park manager Mike Cantor told the newspaper the park had never had any
problems with the previously beloved cheetahs. "It's not something
we've ever really experienced. It's obviously very unfortunate, and
we're looking into what may have startled or riled up the cheetahs,"
Cantor said. The petting facility is closed to the public while the
park investigates the attack.
No comments:
Post a Comment