The strangest part of the story is that no one is getting sued over the incident. Park is making a small policy change and that’s it.
It was an accident and the giraffe didn’t mean to. It was just one of them things that happened," Toten said.
“We’re not mad at the giraffe. We’re not mad at the park,” he added.
That’s a remarkably sensible reaction for someone stupid enough to sit in the back of an open truck when surrounded by 5m tall, 2 ton wild, hungry animals.
Because their kids were riding in the bed of their pickup. That’s not safe under any circumstances, much less near zoo animals.
The zoo will not allow it anymore, but they shouldn’t have allowed it to begin with.
Sounds like an opportunity for Greg Abbot to step in and force the park to allow it.
What’s the giraffe going to do, kick me? Either I pet a giraffe or I get a hoof in the face and die instantly, that’s a win/win.
TIL, giraffe’s neck is strong AF.
They are. They use their neck and head like a mace. (YouTube)
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A giraffe feeding experience at a Texas wildlife center turned frightening last week when one of the animals hoisted a toddler from the bed of the pickup truck she was riding in.
Video shared with NBC News by Jason Toten, the toddler’s father, shows his daughter, wearing pigtails and a pink shirt, holding her hand out the back of a truck in an attempt to feed a giraffe on their tour.
The giraffe nudges its head into the girl and continues to get closer as she moves further into the bed of the truck.
The video then appears to show the animal grabbing the girl and lifting her into the air.
In a statement, Warren Lewis, chief marketing officer for Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Glen Rose, said the center was notified Monday of an “incident involving one of our giraffes” last weekend.
That includes a new rule barring visitors from riding through the park in truck beds.
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