Aurora Starchild
Yet another wild animal has attacked a child by their house before being overpowered by a parent. A family in Ashford, Connecticut was rushed to the hospital after getting attacked by a raccoon. After wrestling the raccoon, the mom heroically chucked it across the yard.
Videos by Rare
Rabid Raccoon Latched Onto Girl and Then Her Mom During Attack
The video shows the daughter, Rylee McNamara screaming on the morning of the raccoon attack. She’s wearing her backpack, ready to go to school on a Friday morning. Rylee is standing by the front door on the porch. The raccoon had made its way up the stairs before attacking her, latching onto her leg.
After several screams, the mom, Robin McNamara, rushes outside and immediately jumps in. The video shows her struggling to detach the raccoon from her daughter’s leg. At one point, she briefly turns her daughter upside-down.
“Go inside, baby, go inside!” says the mom. The raccoon at this point has attached itself to the mom’s arm as she’s using her hips to push her daughter inside the house. Robin turns and starts yelling to neighbors and passersby to stay away. “It’s a rabid raccoon,” she says, as she’s battling the animal.
Then, the mom turns and tries to throw the raccoon off of herself. On the second try, the raccoon flies about 20 feet across the yard and finally runs away.
Rylee and Robin McNamara Were Bitten, Scratched
Both Rylee and Robin McNamara received bites and scratches from the rabid raccoon attack. They rushed to the hospital to get rabies shots but ended up okay.
Geoff Krukar is a wildlife biologist for the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. He told Fox News that the mother’s actions were heroic and that she did exactly the right thing.
“The mother behaved in a way that was very heroic. I think she and she did everything, everything correctly. By avoiding getting bit, warning the neighbor to stay back, and getting the child to safety,” Krukar said.
However, CBS reports that both the child and her mother were in fact bitten during the attack. The raccoon still has not been captured.
Krukar added that signs of rabies include frothing at the mouth, animals coming unusually close to humans, and daylight activity of nocturnal animals. Though these signs don’t always mean that the animal has rabies, anyone who observes them should get away from the animal and call the authorities.
