A Scottish shutterbug snapped away as a pair of supposedly-tame cheetahs mauled his wife during a birthday visit to a South African game reserve.Violet D’Mello visited the Kragga Kamma Game Park with her husband, Archibald, last Saturday to celebrate her 60th birthday, ABC News reported.
She was posing for photos with a pair of male cheetahs, Mark and Monty — whom park officials had said were not dangerous — when one of the cats suddenly latched onto an 8-year-old girl’s leg.
Violet tried to stop the attack when the spotted beasts suddenly turned on her.
“But the next thing I knew I was on the floor and the cheetah was right on top of me,” D’Mello told Britain’s The Daily Mail.
“It started scratching me really badly and then I could feel the other one come up too, and one of them got my neck in its mouth.”
“I was just screaming and trying to get my hands up around my neck to protect myself, but I was being bitten all over my legs and down my side near my kidneys.”
Archibald D’Mello said he was so stunned by the attack that he didn’t realize he had kept taking photos, which surfaced online on Friday.
One of the horrific snapshots shows a cheetah gnawing on Violet’s neck.
In another, blood trickles from the back of her head as both cats lurk near her head.
Violet said she thought playing dead would fool the animals.
“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.
After about three minutes, a park guide beat the animals back with a stick, the couple said.
D’Mello was rushed to a nearby hospital, where she was treated for wounds on her head and face, including a slash wound just inches from her right eye, as well as gashes to her stomach and legs.
She told Caters News Agency that she was “on the mend,” but “quite traumatized” by the attack.
Her husband said he was angry that park officials told the couples the animals were safe to pet.
“The park said they didn’t know what had caused the cheetahs to attack but they shouldn’t let tourists in unless they’re sure it is safe,” he said.
Park manager Mike Cantor told the Port Elizabeth Herald that the cheetahs never attacked anyone before.
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