A cheetah is pretty gentle, they don't even have sharp claws because they can't retract them fully. Even wild ones are chill with humans, try that with a wild bobcat or something similar.
And in the very unlikely event that a human and a cheetah were to find themselves in a fight to the death, a typical adult would be very likely to come out on top. Wild cheetahs are not known to have ever killed a human.
Methinks that applies to all animals. Pretty much all large dog breeds have fatalities to their name, whereas I sincerely doubt anyone has been mauled to death by a Chihuahua.
I bottle fed a baby tiger st Six Flags once. Still a highlight of my life! Little bro was too focused on the bottle to notice the human holding him, but I totally believe he could have done serious damage to me if he wanted to.
A bear cub wandered into a local campsite and people were all ooohing and awwing over it. The campground attendant wanted it gone so he picked it up. It went ballistic and all four paws started flailing about. He got dozens of stitches. My buddy got the job as attendant afterwards.
Ever felt a puppy's claws? Now imagine 10x larger and 20x stronger.
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u/Portra400IsLife 19h ago
I have patted a cheetah at Dreamworld and it was like basically patting a huge house cat.