Big cats are not pets, not even cheetah

Even the seemly tame and friendly cheetah can be dangerous sometimes.



A woman who was mauled by cheetahs at a South African game preserve tried to save her daughter when she was grabbed by another cheetah from the behind. She tried to play dead, while her husband took plenty of photos before went ahead to save her.

What kind of husband was that? Photos first, then save his wife?

http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/wom...ories.html

WILD ANIMALS ARE NOT PETS!!!!!!!!!!! When are people going to get that through their heads?!!!!

Cheetah is quite tame usually. Even on Animal Planet they always portrait cheetah as human friendly. Some ancient Egyptian wall paintings have cheetah hunt along side of humans. As far as I know, there had been only two incident with cheetah. The last one was simply a miss bite. This time it sounds dangerous. Cheetah is all for speed, and they aren't built for fight, but they still can take down larger animals than themselves, it should tell us something.

I bet the husband sold the photos for some good money and was telling his wife "It's worth it". Shame on him.

I saw that. Amazing he stood there snapping pics.

It's just impossible to maintain these guys under normal conditions. Any larger cat can still play. Anyone that has had cats knows that at least once in a while you may get swatted at, nipped, etc, either in play or out of irritation. With a 12lb house cat it is cute. With that? Dangerous.

In Washington zoo, I had seen two zoo keepers walked into the enclosure and threw balls to play with 3 cheetah. The cheetah did go after the balls like a bunch of house cats!

Consider cheetah can take down prey much larger and stronger than humans. They can be still dangerous when they want to be, even they appear to be harmless and friendly most of the time.

My point was, they can be dangerous even when they don't want to be. Cat "play" is to hone fighting, attack, and feeding skills. So what a little cat does that seems cute and is harmless, can be deadly when done by a cat with bigger claws, teeth, and more stregnth.

I agree. A cat half the size of human would be stronger than us. Never mind the similar or bigger sized "cats".
It was on TV a few years back when a tiger accidentally killed his keeper during playing. Cops came and they just shot both tigers in the enclosure with shotguns at close range, before getting the keeper's body out. Sad! That tiger was only giving a "hug". The second tiger didn't do anything!

Something is wrong with the husbands head. I don't know how he could just stand there and take pictures.

And were were the handlers? Why did it take 3 minutes for them to remove the cheetahs?

James

(05-14-2012 01:36 AM)Flexin Wrote:  Something is wrong with the husbands head. I don't know how he could just stand there and take pictures.

And were were the handlers? Why did it take 3 minutes for them to remove the cheetahs?

James

There are things we normal people can never understand. From the video, it seems the husband is more angry than the wife.

Handlers should also be with the visitors. I say it is the fault of popular media which had been portrait cheetah as completely harmless wild animals. Big cats are big cats. They are stronger than humans, and they have weapons on them 24/7.

(05-14-2012 01:49 AM)Ram8349 Wrote:  

(05-14-2012 01:36 AM)Flexin Wrote:  Something is wrong with the husbands head. I don't know how he could just stand there and take pictures.

And were were the handlers? Why did it take 3 minutes for them to remove the cheetahs?

James

There are things we normal people can never understand. From the video, it seems the husband is more angry than the wife.

Handlers should also be with the visitors. I say it is the fault of popular media which had been portrait cheetah as completely harmless wild animals. Big cats are big cats. They are stronger than humans, and they have weapons on them 24/7.

I didn't get to see the video. I think it wasn't available here.

We can put the blame on a lot of people. We can blame the media but in the end it comes down to a lack of common sense. I'm not afraid of dogs but at times I know when I need to be really careful around certain ones.

The media might have played a part in it but others are more to blame. The one running the petting zoo didn't do everything they could imo to keep customers safe. If there are two big cats in there they should have at least 2 if not more handlers in there just in case things go bad.

I'm sure the handlers would be cheaper then any lawsuit.

James

(05-14-2012 02:28 AM)Flexin Wrote:  I didn't get to see the video. I think it wasn't available here.

The video is in the link in the first post.

After watching and reading it again, it seems it was originally a predatory attack on a child, ad she stepped in the way. I don't know how small the child was, but it likely was squared up as lunch. Getting between an animal and lunch is not a good place to be.

There is no known record of cheetah being man-eater.
We will never know what's in the cheetah's head. Maybe it was trying to play.

The husband may have been thinking "Lawsuit + Substantial Evidence = $$$" other than that being the case I feel sorry for the mother and daughter.