Tourists Mauled By Cheetahs While Trying To Save Two Children

May 4, 2012

A vacation turned into a nightmare for several tourists, two of which were children, who were visiting the Kragga Kamma game park petting zoo in South Africa.

According to The Sun, a woman named Violet D’Mello was brutally attacked by two “tame” cheetahs after she tried to stop one of the cheetahs from attacking a 7-year-old boy named Calum Malan.

The attack began when Calum’s 8-year-old sister, Camryn was struck in the leg by one of the cheetahs. The attack happened quickly and Violet jumped into action when she noticed the cheetahs had begun to turn their attention to the young boy, who began to run for his life. Violet intervened and was brutally attacked in the head and legs by the cheetahs, who the park rangers claim are “tame” and only attacked because they thought it was “play time”.

Let’s make this very clear: cheetahs are not tame. They are wild animals and wild animals have predatory instincts. The two children probably looked like prey to these cheetahs. Humans, especially young children, should not be allowed to enter the confined quarters of a wild predatory animal like the cheetah.

Violet and Camryn were rushed to the hospital and were treated for their injuries. Violet received stitches in her head and legs, while Camryn received stitches in her legs. Calum was unharmed (physically speaking).

Hopefully everyone recovers from their injuries, however we have a feeling those two kids will never want to be close to large animals of any sort ever again.

We also can’t help but applaud Violet who jumped in two save these two children, who war apparently of no relation to her. Where were their parents? Where were the park rangers? Those two children are lucky Violet was there to divert the cheetahs attention away from them. If she hadn’t been there, we’d hate to think what may have happened to them.