9-year-old girl attacked by kangaroo at the zoo

MADISON COUNTY, Ala. -- A 9-year-old girl is recovering after being bitten on the head by a kangaroo while visiting Harmony Park Safari in Madison County, Alabama. The incident was caught on camera.

"You blame yourself sometimes, like, 'Why did I take her to the park that day? Why did I take her to see the kangaroo?'" said her mother, Jennifer White.

"I'm just glad it got me instead of my baby sister because it would have hurt her even worse," Cheyenne White said.

Cheyenne, 9, and her 3-year-old sister were in for a surprise Saturday. Mom drove them to one of the girls' favorite places.

"I was like, 'Yay! We're at the safari zoo,'" Cheyenne said.

The family had been to Harmony Park Safari many times before, but they had never seen the kangaroos.

"It was really cute because she would walk one way and it would follow her," Jennifer White said.

"I thought it was playing," Cheyenne said.

Jennifer White took cell phone video of her daughters up close to the kangaroo. When the younger one reaches through the fence, the kangaroo reaches its head and arms through the fence, grabs Cheyenne by her hair, and appears to bite her head. Her mother says her little girl now has 14 stitches.

"I'm just glad I was there," Jennifer said.

WAFF was told by a Harmony Park Safari employee that the owners do not want to comment. At the entrance to the kangaroo trail, there are signs posted showing a state law as a warning to customers that they take their own risks when visiting an agri-tourism business. There are also two plaques on the fence that say "I Bite."

Jennifer says if the park had a better barrier preventing contact with animals, or fencing that wouldn't allow it, her daughter won't have been bitten.

"I don't want it to happen to someone else's kid because they may not be as fortunate as my daughter was," she said.

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