Woman Hospitalized After Wildebeest Attacks Her At Zoo

IREDELL COUNTY, N.C. (CBS Charlotte) – A woman was hospitalized after being attacked by a wildebeest at a drive-thru zoo named Zootastic.

Scottie Brown was taking school children on a drive on a wagon through the zoo.  One mother arrived late as the wagon just left so Brown radioed his bookkeeper, Kimberly Hillman.

“I radioed her and said I saw the lady so Kim said, ‘Well, I’ll just bring them down in my car,’” Brown told WXOC-TV.  “So she brought them down and when she got out of the car she was walking the kids to the wagon.  The wildebeest came over and she shooed it.”

The wildebeest thought Hillman was being aggressive.

“It hit her, threw her up in the air.  She hit the ground, it picked her up again and threw her up in the air, and I was getting off the tractor at the time and I ran and got between her and the wildebeest,” Brown described to WSOC. “It happened because she got out of her car and I guess for that matter, it could have happened to the mother and child? Oh yes, yes.”

Hillman was in the hospital for about a week.  She suffered minor injuries and still has a black eye from the incident.

Brown told the station that this is the first time anybody has ever been injured at Zootastic.  He also plans that this is the only time.  Brown will strictly enforce the rules to make sure no one who is inside of the zoo grounds is allowed outside of a wagon or other vehicle.

“It was a total misdirection of what we normally do here and it will never happen again,” he said.