A cheetah that attacked a New Zealand boy in South Africa attacked another tourist the day before.
Christchurch boy Isaac Driver, 14, was attacked by Dew the cheetah at South Africa's Emdoneni Lodge on March 15 leaving him with injuries - but his family were never told that just the day before another tourist was mauled by the same cheetah.
According to News24, Chinese exchange student Peggy Lio was visiting the park the day before the Drivers did and was attacked in the enclosure - which was caught on camera.
"Suddenly, one of the cheetah approached me, jumped on me and pulled me down on the ground, attempting to bite me," she said.
The attack is only seconds long however Ms Lio can get heard screaming in pain as the cat latches to her before park staff attempted to haul the animal off.
Ms Lio says the park staff did not provide medical treatment.
"I asked a couple of the employees from Emdoneni Safari Park if I needed to go to see doctor and get injection, but they said I don't need to because the cheetah has had a rabies injection before."
Issac Driver's father, David, said they were never told about the previous day's attack.
"I was quite shocked, that's not really good [enough]," he says.
The family went to the park to give money to a conservation lodge to help conservation efforts.
"We go and see the cheetah and they get our money to help cheetah and that kind of thing," he says.
"We thought we were doing some good."
During the attack David said he had no hesitation in fighting back.
"I basically grabbed it and threw it to the ground," he says.
"I was straight in there, it was biting and had its claws around him, I remember thinking 'you're not having his head' and pinned it to the floor.
"Luckily the cheetah didn't go ballistic I thought if this cheetah decides to go ballistic , then obviously it has very sharp claws and I thought well this is a different ball game."
The Driver family only found out about the attack on the Chinese woman on Sunday.
"It not really fair on the cheetahs really more than anybody else," David says.
"It's obviously not happy and its putting its life at risk as well as the public.
"From the cheetah's point of view, it'll probably get put down, it's obviously attacked a few people, and nothing has happened - to him it might just be a game."
David says it was lucky nothing horrendous happened and the park rang the family several times after the incident. The family gave the park the benefit of the doubt that the attack was just a one-off incident.
"Obviously I was talking nonsense because literally the day before that hadn't learnt at all," he says.
Mr Driver says after the incident the family wanted to return home as quickly as possible.
They now have no intention of getting in touch with the park again.
Newshub.
