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.
A woman can be heard screaming in the background.
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.
Lewis said that nothing like the incident had happened before at Fossil Rim, but that it is taking “immediate action to make sure it won’t happen again.”
That includes a new rule barring visitors from riding through the park in truck beds.
Toten said he and his family are “saddened” to hear that visitors will no longer be allowed to ride in the back of trucks, but that his family will definitely revisit the park. He added that it’s a “great place to go,” especially for kids who love animals.
“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.
