Posted on 06/15/2017 2:05:31 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A Maine woman remembered thinking about how beautiful the day was as she jogged through the woods, never imagining she would have to fend off a rabid raccoon with her bare hands, according to the Bangor Daily News.
Rachel Borch was running recently along a familiar trail near her home in Hope, a small town south of Bangor, when she saw the animal in the middle of the path, baring its teeth, she told the paper Wednesday.
When the raccoon ran straight for her, Borch said she knew it was rabid. With overgrown bushes on either side of the trail, there was no way to get around it.
“Imagine the Tasmanian devil, it was terrifying,” she told the Bangor Daily News. “I knew it was going to bite me.”
Borch remembered thinking that if she could hold it down on the ground she might have the best chance of defending herself, but as soon as she grabbed it, the raccoon bit down on her thumb.
Crying and screaming as the rabies-infected creature continued to kick and scratch, the 21-year-old saw a puddle on the trail and managed to drag the raccoon to it.
“With my thumb in its mouth, I just pushed its head down into the muck,” Borch said. She held the animal’s head under the water until its movements finally slowed. Then she ran – shoeless and in hysterics – nearly a mile to her house.
Her father collected the animal’s body in an old dog food bag and her mother immediately took Borch to a nearby hospital for an evaluation and a series of shots. The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that the raccoon’s blood tested positive for rabies, according to WGME.
“She was phenomenal,” Hope Animal Control Officer Heidi Blood told the station. “I don’t know if I would’ve been able to keep my composure and handle the situation the way she did.”
Borch, who is a vegetarian, told the paper that, even though she killed the animal in self defense, she won’t be able to see raccoons as just cute forest creatures anymore.
According to the CDC, the state has tallied 21 cases of rabies this year – 14 raccoons (including the one that attacked Borch), three red foxes and four skunks.
Do you live here in Tennessee! Animal Control is useless. In many areas there is no such thing. I’ve called them a couple times for help and was asked, “What do you want me to do about it?”
So many people treat their pets like crap - often technically abusive.
I once drowned a raccoon which had a pellet in its’ brain. It put up a mighty struggle.
The same thing happened to me once, it was a honey badger though...no lie
There’s all sorts of animals living in and around the park. Water, food scraps, places to hide.
Paging Sam Hammett...
Do you jog with it there? I would think it could be sweaty or cumbersome. Of course, if your ran into a crazed Bernie fan, especially disguised as a raccoon, you’d be glad you had it.
Someone was making “Guardians of the Galaxy” jokes. “Rocket’s cousin trading in on his name to get a handout.
I liked the part about the dog barking.
“Birch, who is a vegetarian”
Gosh, you’d think an animal doctor would have been able to help the poor animal, but, no, probably had a bad credit report so she just kills it.
Sure looks that way too... took off her sleeve as well.
She is a vegetarian. She got hungry.
What they don’t tear up they crap on. Coons are like that.
According to the post that brought this all to light: In an ensuing letter, Mick Jagger asked for permission to make use of the “Opus Feature”, a mechanism to say goodbye in an overwrought manner, over a hexagonal image for which a future Rolling Stones album cover would be designed, a request that was again denied by the powers that be of the forum.
I killed one with a hastily crafted spear. Even with a high quality knife with a needle sharp point as the spear head it took three jabs to puncture the beast’s skin. They are tough!
fun things going on in my state lately:
http://bangordailynews.com/2017/06/14/outdoors/fox-thought-to-have-rabies-attacks-man-in-topsham/?ref=relatedSidebar
this is not too far from whee I used to live in Topsham, before moving up to Banglr last fall
Why(how) would a hedge club lunge at you? o.O
“...yet my pistol would have stopped it.”
Preferable to what this gal did, but I’m glad she is OK.
“Or haven’t you ever listened to that song?”
A lot of people never listen to the lyrics. That is actually an awful song, totally against American Women and one of the few songs I will run across the room to turn off.
Better to use “american girl” by Tom Petty.
No time to review. I clocked one that lunged at me with a hedge club.
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