Cheyenne White was attacked by a kangaroo in an Alabama zoo. Picture: NBC
TERRIFYING phone footage has captured the moment a kangaroo reached through its wire-fence enclosure at an Alabama zoo and attacked a screaming nine-year-old girl.
In the video, young Cheyenne White can be seen walking closer to the kangaroo at the Harmony Park Safari in Huntsville before the roo suddenly grabs the child through the fence by her hair.
The kangaroo appeared to bite Cheyenne on the head, leaving the girl with 14 stitches, her mother, Jennifer, who took the video, told local news outlets.
“I’m just glad I was there,” an emotional Jennifer told NBC-affiliate WAFF.
The mother, who took Cheyenne and her other three-year-old daughter to the safari – a favourite of theirs – said, “Sometimes you blame yourself, like, why did I take her to the park that day. Why did I take her to see the kangaroo?”
The brave little girl, wearing a bandage around her head, added, “I’m just glad [the kangaroo] got me instead of my baby sister. It would have hurt her even worse.”
Cheyenne said she was excited when her mum took her and her little sister to visit the safari on Saturday.
“I was like, ‘Yay, we’re at the safari zoo!” the girl said. She thought the kangaroo was only “playing” when the animal walked up to the fence.
A safari employee told WAFF that the safari owners did not want to comment on the incident but pointed to signage detailing a state law that says people take some of their own risks when visiting an “agri-tourism business.”
There is other warning signage around the kangaroo enclosure that says, “I bite,” but Jennifer says it’s not enough.
“I don’t want it to happen to somebody else’s kid because they may not be as fortunate as my daughter was,” the mum said.
This article originally appeared on The New York Post.