A heart-stopping incident occurred at a Texas safari ride when a giraffe unexpectedly lifted a 2-year-old girl into the air while she was feeding it. The dramatic episode was captured on video at the Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Glen Rose last Saturday.
Paisley Toten was in the back of her family’s pickup truck, engaged in feeding the giraffes, when the unexpected happened. “We stopped to feed the giraffes, and I turned around to look out the back window, and I saw the giraffe kind of digging around right there, and then it just grabbed her, and I didn’t see her no more,” Paisley’s father, Jason Toten, recounted to KWTX.
Another visitor, Lindsey Merriman, was a few cars behind the Toten’s vehicle and witnessed the entire scene unfold. She explained to Storyful, “My daughter was recording a giraffe eating out of people’s hands and dipping its head in sunroofs. We were three cars behind a red truck and saw the giraffe accidentally grab a little girl’s shirt along with the food and lift her from the bed of the truck.”
Miraculously, the video captured the moment when the giraffe, realizing its mistake, dropped Paisley straight back into her mother’s arms after her mother shouted, “Hey!” at the towering animal.
Jason Toten believed it was an innocent error by the giraffe, which seemed to react quickly and let go of Paisley immediately after being shouted at. Thankfully, the young girl and everyone involved came out of the situation unscathed.
The Fossil Rim Wildlife Center has yet to make a statement about the incident as inquiries for comment remain pending.