Holidaymaker misled over ‘tame’ cheetahs before attack

Housewife Violet D’Mello, 60, from Aberdeen, was taken to hospital after the two big cats leaped on her in a petting enclosure at a private game park.

Owners of the Kragga Kamma wildlife reserve claimed the male cheetahs Mark and Monty were tame and had never attacked humans before.

However, an American tourist has told a South African newspaper she was injured when the pair lunged at her during a visit three years ago.

Michelle Bodenheimer, from Portland, Oregon, said people should not be allowed in the enclosure with the cheetahs.

She said: “I am heartbroken to see that Kragga Kamma did not learn from my unfortunate experience.

“The attacks are not the fault of the cats. They could have been prevented. They are wild animals, which we tend to forget. People simply should not be allowed in with these beautiful, wild creatures.”

She added: “In hindsight, I wish I had pushed the matter further at the time as perhaps it would have prevented this other poor woman from [being attacked].”

Mrs Bodenheimer told the newspaper she visited Kragga Kamma with her husband in June 2009.

She said she had been attacked after she entered the enclosure to stroke the cheetahs, then large cubs.

Mrs Bodenheimer said she had been horrified to read that the same thing had happened when Mrs D’Mello visited the same cheetahs on 28 April.

The Scottish mother of two was on a month-long holiday with her husband Archie, 64, when they stopped at Kragga Kamma near the Indian Ocean city of Port Elizabeth.

Mrs D’Mello told how the couple entered the enclosure with a local family before one of the cheetahs attacked an eight-year-old girl.

The brother cats then both lunged at her as she tried to protect the girl’s younger brother, seven, from the beasts.

Mrs D’Mello suffered serious wounds across her head, stomach and legs during the three-minute attack which ended after a member of staff scared the cheetahs off with a stick.

She was taken to hospital and needed dozens of stitches before she spent three days in bed recovering from the ordeal.

Mrs Bodenheimer said she read of the incident last week and e-mailed the park to express her disappointment that another attack had been allowed to happen.

She said: “They pointed out that when I was attacked the cheetahs were cubs. I pointed out that although the cheetahs were ‘cubs’ at the time, they were 18-months old and it was explained to me that they are fully grown at that point but still have a kitten mentality.”

Kragga Kamma manager Mike Cantor yesterday admitted the cheetahs had been involved in incidents with other guests.

He said: “From the report I received at the time from my staff, it didn’t sound like a particularly serious or sinister incident.

“There has been the occasional other incident, too, when people have been scratched by the cheetahs.

“Mrs Bodenheimer should have made more of it and let us know her concerns.”