Video: The moment a cheetah attacked a volunteer in a conservation park

Amandine Lequime, a young Belgian volunteer, was attacked by a cheetah captive in the facilities of a conservation park in South Africa. The victim was filming the outside of the cat’s cage while one of his companions was about to feed him.

In the video, you can see that as soon as they opened the door to their area, the cheetah jumped on Lequime’s back. Recalling the incident, she explained that when it fell to the ground, the animal continued to bite and scratch his arms and legs until they manage to separate him.

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Lequime ended up in the hospital: they had to treat several deep cuts and bites. But is out of danger. After the incident, he learned that the same cheetah had attacked the warden of the facility two years earlier, causing injuries to his neck and legs.

The conservation park has also asked him not to say anything about the incident. However, she refused because she wanted to prevent other volunteers from having “similar combat experiences.” “People need to understand that being around wild animals is attractive, but not safe,” he said.

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This is not the first time this has happened

The campaign manager of the Blood Lions organization, Dr. Louise de Waal, expressed concern about this type of situation and warned of the dangers of captive facilities.

He said that many of the volunteers who pay to visit these types of places and tourists have been attacked by captive cats in the country over the past 10 years, but that Blood Lions “you can only hope that Amandine is one of the last victims”.

Unsuspecting visitors, often from other countries, are offered convenient opportunities to interact with and feed the animals. De Waal tried to remind the country that this involves “huge health and safety risks”.

In the same vein, he assured that a third of the victims involved in incidents like the one that occurred with Lequime die during the attacks. Many don’t report either. Blood lions criticized the facility itself, claiming that the big cat enclosures, called “sanctuaries”, are poorly designed and lack of security mechanisms that separate predators from humans (or prey).

The wrong arrangement puts volunteers and staff in great danger simply by feeding the animals or cleaning the pens. One of the many reasons for aggressive attacks like this this is due to the high stress level of the animals they must be in nature and experience “unnatural situations”.