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The trip of a lifetime to celebrate a Scottish woman’s 60th birthday turned brutal when
two supposedly tame cheetahs attacked the woman at a game reserve in South Africa.
Violet D’Mello and her husband Archie were allowed to get up close and pet two brother
cheetahs, Mark and Monty, at the Kragga Kamma Game Park in Port Elizabeth last week-
end. “They seemed to be pretty docile. They said they were hand reared from cubs and
were extremely tame and one could you know stroke them and not only that lay on
them and they’ll do nothing to you,” Archie D’Mello said. The couple had just taken
photos with the animals and were still in the petting area when one of the cats grabbed
an 8-year-old girl by the leg. Violet D’Mello tried to stop the attack. After the girl ran
for safety, D’Mello said both cheetahs turned on her in a savage attack that lasted for
more than three minutes. Incredibly, Archie D’Mello kept taking pictures, document-
ing the horrific scene as the animals bit and scratched his wife’s head, legs and sto-
mach. Violet D’Mello said her instinct took over while a guide tried to pull the cats
off of her. “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. Miraculously, Violet D’Mello
walked away with no life-threatening wounds. The 60-year-old lost a lot of blood dur-
ing the attack and has a lot of stitches on both her thighs and her scalp, her husband
said. Park manager Mike Cantor told the newspaper the park had never had any pro-
blems with the previously beloved cheetahs. “It’s not something we’ve ever really
experienced. It’s obviously very unfortunate, and we’re looking into what may have
startled or riled up the cheetahs,” Cantor said. The petting facility is closed to the
public while the park investigates the attack.
