Scottish tourists Violet and Archibald D’Mello were visiting the Kragga Kamma Game Park in South Africa last week to celebrate Violet’s 60th birthday. Violet was posing for pictures with a pair of male cheetahs named Mark and Montey when one of the supposedly tame cheetahs clamped his mouth around an eight-year-old girl’s leg.
Violet tried to stop the attack, so the cheetah started mauling her instead.
Then his buddy joined in. They weren’t simply biting her leg or foot, mind you, they were gnawing on her head.
And what did her husband do during all of this? He stood there like an idiot photographing the whole thing. Now the photos of the attack are all over the Internet.
Eventually the Violet played dead and a park ranger chased the cheetahs off of her with a stick.
The husband later said he was so stunned he didn’t realize that he kept taking photos.
I hope Archie is using the money he made selling the photos of his Violet’s mauling to buy her some nice hats.
That was weak, Archie, really weak.
Lead photo by Tambako the Jaguar
While his actions seem ridiculous, some people don’t know how to react under stress. They do stupid things without thinking.
I’ve been guilty of this before. You look back and think, “what the hell was going through my head?”
You make a good point. I had thought of that and, in one draft of the post, mentioned that maybe I shouldn’t be too quick to judge.
Then I thought, “what the hell do I have a blog for if not to judge total strangers?” 😀
Dumb dumb dumb! Sure, the man is an idiot for taking the photos. However, I am not sure it’s a good idea to let people and kids in there with cheetahs. They are still wild creatures. You can tell from the photos that the cheetahs weren’t really attacking. They could have really done a lot more damage than what they did if they wanted.
One of the articles said that they weren’t all out attacking–just overexcited. I can’t believe the guy just kept taking pictures! Shameful!
I have worked with wild cheetahs and they do not attack people. But when you put them under stress (like in a petting zoo or walk with a cheetah businesses) they can react as what they are, a wild animal. As for the husband…I would say he might get a divorce notification soon. What an idiot. I agree that you might not know what to do under a certain stressful circumstance but if you think a wild cat is mauling your wife…come on!
I agree on both points.
On a somewhat related note, I wonder if this story will have an affect on the number of bloggers who have their pictures taken petting tigers in Thailand.
What is going to happen to the Cheetah’s after this “attack” ?
The ignorance of people amazes me everyday, that animal was obviously just making it known the he was the dominant one by bitting that child, and when the woman interfered she was ‘challenging’ this animal. What do you expect it to do?
If he had wanted to really hurt either of them they would be dead right now.
Yup, good point. If the cheetah were serious, this would have been a very different story.
please bloggers out there, do not go to petting zoos or walk with wild animal programs. They are all a business and do not help the animals, even though some of these places claim to help conservation. They are just a business.
I know it probably shouldn’t be funny but I cannot stop laughing!
I do agree with Christina too, don’t visit these places. These animals are not meant to be ‘tamed’.
Nice husband – I would feel so safe in his company……
I know!
goodness, that husband is so mean! poor wifey 🙁
Yup. Time for divorce!
I don’t know, I mean, how often do you get to see a cheetah mauling first hand and how often do you also happen to be holding a camera to document the evidence?! I like his ‘do-er’ mentality. Way to seize the opportunity!
(That was a joke, I’m not really a terrible person…not realllly)
Ah ha ha ha. Yup, he’s got a great career as a tabloid photographer ahead of him 😀
Posted by Libby Sherburne on another site:
“In between snapping pictures, the husband was whispering “good kitty..go for the neck!”.”
LMAO! Hilarious.
Ha ha ha! So wrong!