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If you live in the United States, there isn't much opportunity to encounter wild animals other than the usual squirrels, deer, and occasional bear while you're out and about like there is in other countries, like Africa. That means that if you want to see animals like giraffes or zebras, you're going to have to visit a zoo or other wildlife park to do it. And in certain areas of the country, you can find safari parks, where visitors stay in their cars and feed animals along a trail with the windows rolled down.
But since these parks mean you're getting closer to the animals than you would at a more traditional zoo, they also come with bigger risks, which is something that this family learned the hard way during their recent visit.
This footage from a Texas safari park called Fossil Park shared by @abcnews on TikTok on Wednesday, June 5 appears to be taken by an adult riding in a truck with a little girl while they were feeding a giraffe. But the giraffe picked the little girl up by her shirt before dropping her through the air, back into her adult's arms.
The video ends with more footage taken that day from a car behind the family's, offering a better look at exactly what happened. This is so terrifying!
It's a relief to see that the little girl made it back to her parents in one piece, but there's no doubt that they must have been so scared in that moment. Something much worse could have happened.
The Incident at Fossil Park
Local news outlet KWTX reported that the little girl in the video is 2-year-old Paisley Toten , and she was riding in the bed of a pick up truck with her mom when the giraffe lifted her out of it.
“Paisley was holding the bag and the giraffe went to go get the bag, not get her, but ended up getting her shirt too and picking her up,” her dad, Jason Toten, said.
The family wasn't breaking any rules by riding in the back of the truck; visitors were permitted to ride there at the park. But after this incident, Fossil Park changed their rules, and everyone must be seated inside the vehicle with the doors closed to prevent something like this from happening again.
The good news? Paisley seems to have come out unscathed. Her dad told KWTX that he purchased her a toy giraffe at the gift shop for their troubles, and the family does plan to come back to the park again.
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