Raccoons Attack Woman After Jog

A dingo ate your baby raccoon...?

I usually agree with your comments navrat but I disagree this time. It was the woman's fault. 1: She lost control of her dog. 2: It sounds like she tried to break up her dog from the raccoons. She put herself at risk by choosing to intervene. Her dog is complicit, but is supposed to be under her control. I suspect the raccoons are innocent victims.

The problem was the dog.

I can see armyguy's point. How many times have I seen city people move out into the country and then complain about the deer population, or the smell of cow manure. Too mnay to count! We may have dominion over the animals, but only when we carry a gun. This case is proof positive of that. I also found the story quite amusing.

When jogging always carry a re-tracable cop stick.

The woman was bit because her dog attacked the animals and she got stuck in the middle while trying to retrieve her dog. I'm sorry for her but I really find this story amusing. I'm picturing her scampering around trying to shoo away the big mean raccoons...bahahahaha

VoiceOfReason2, would it be better to get those rabbi shots in a synagogue or hospital? ;-) Sorry, somehow I just couldn't resist. Armyguy45177 - I don't buy all this "mankind has invaded the animals' homes" stuff, when clearly we live on this planet, too, and have just as much right to live here as they do. What do you expect man to do...go back to living in caves? Wouldn't we be encroaching on their territory then, too? You might say we should stay in cities, but didn't we have to invade the animal territory in order to build those cities? What about our farms? Didn't settlers have to invade animal territory in order to clear the land to plant fields? I mean, come on...think about it. God created us with dominion over the animals, and while I don't believe that means we have the right to be cruel to them, you're not going to tell me it's the woman's fault for being bit by a raccoon while walking along a trail in a park that happens to be populated with them.

Rabies is somewhat uncommon that far north, especially since rabies vaccinations have become common for dogs and cats. In Washington state I think there's only been two cases of rabies in humans in the past 20 years. Though the behavior of the animals described in the story is suspicious, and could be a symptom of rabies. As a precaution she probably should get the rabies shot. There would be no way of knowing which raccoons did the attack, so it's not reasonable to assume that all of the raccoons involved in the attack can be hunt down and caught and tested. It sounds like her dog antagonized the raccoons in the first place. It sounds like the raccoons may have just been lashing out after being harassed by her dog. If she would have kept her dog on the leash and under control, she probably wouldn't have gotten bit.

Unfortunately for this woman, unless they captured all of the attacking raccoons and quarantine them to ensure they are disease free, she is going to have to undergo rabbi shots. Raccoons have a high incidence of rabbis.

Wild animals are afraid of humans and stay well back, unless some witless animal lover thinks it is cute to feed them. Then they lose their fear of humans. This has happened with bears in the National Parks.