VIDEO: Heart Stopping Moment a Panther Sneaks Up & Pounces On a Defenseless Man… To Give Him a Kiss

07 Jun, 2016 by Cassy Fiano

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For most people, a giant panther sneaking up on you would be cause for terror. But for this man, it was no big deal — the panther just wanted to give him a little kiss!

From the Daily Mail:

At first it looks like the man is doomed.

Resting easily against a wall in an animal sanctuary enclosure, the Mexican man chats happily in Spanish as a black panther – hundreds of pounds of sleek muscle, claw and tooth – creeps silently up on him.

Just as the big cat coils to pounce, the man spins around and starts laughing and playing with the animal, who he refers to as one of his ‘babies’.

The video, which was posted to Instagram Saturday by user @Bofokaram and highlighted by the New York Daily News, continues with the man and panther tussling with one another, the big cat grabbing him playfully with its powerful paws and jaw.

The man – Eduardo Serio – taunts the cat into chasing him then jumps up onto the grassy verge behind, the creature gracefully leaping up behind him.

He jumps down again and gives the animal a kiss on its nose, ducking back as it swipes at him and bares its teeth.

Incredibly he goes in for a kiss again, and again, and it becomes clear that he was never in any serious danger as the panther begins to lick his face.

Then he gives the panther a friendly push away and it settles on the grass behind him, content – for now – just to watch him.

The jaguar, it turns out is named Kal-El – Superman’s birth name – and he is one of Serio’s ‘kids’, the name the Mexican man gives to the animals he cares for in his animal sanctuary.

Serio runs The Black Jaguar-White Tiger Foundation, which cares for unwanted and abandoned big cats, and fights to overturn laws that make breeding the creatures legal in Mexico.

At present, Serio’s ‘kids’ – which also include lions, tigers and lynxes – number in the hundreds, and occupy a 30-acre plot.

What he does is wonderful and amazing. But it seems unwise at best to let these animals have such easy access to him — Siegfried and Roy had good relationships with their animals, too, and yet they still ended up with one that attacked. These are dangerous animals first and foremost, and it would be dumb to forget that.