Pack of raccoons attack woman leaving her with over a 100 lacerations, sending her to hospital

[cali]

Raccoon Attack Sends Woman to Hospital


A Washington state woman suffered 16 puncture wounds and over 100 lacerations after being attacked by a pack of raccoons.

Twenty-eight-year-old Michaela Lee was jogging on a trail near her Lakewood home when her dog spotted two raccoons and chased them up a tree.

“I went over to pick up the leash and head home when three other raccoons just charged out of the grass straight for me. I decided to run, but they were chasing me and clawing at the back of my legs,” Lee said.

She had just gotten to her neighbor’s yard when she tripped over them. As soon as she fell, the raccoons began to viciously attack, biting her arms and legs as she lay trapped under them. Seconds later, Lee’s dog ran up and began biting and growling at them, scaring several of them off and giving Lee enough time to get on her feet.

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http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/07/raccoon-attack-sends-woman-to-hospital/

[Honeycombe8]

1. Wow. I've never heard of racoons attacking. Not her fault, or theirs. They were attacked first by

her dog. The dog was just doing what dogs do, and this whole thing wasn't anyone's or any creature's fault. But how scary. Who would've thought?

[tularetom]

9. Raccoons killed one of our cats

I'm pretty sure they will attack if they feel their babies are threatened.

We have to keep our trash cans in a fenced and covered enclosure to keep the little bastards out. We even had a dog get scratched up pretty bad when he mixed it up with them.

I found a dead one in our pasture once and weighed it. It weighed 18 lbs. so they'd make a pretty tough opponent for most dogs even a big one like our lab.

[SidDithers]

2. Raccoons on bath salts, surely...nt

Sid

[DontTreadOnMe]

3. 28 years old? Didn't know how to kick a racoon in the face?

I am not sure I feel sorry for this person... "she got to her neighbor's yard when she tripped over them".. wtf?

How can you trip over something that you are running away from?

If this was someone elderly who could not get away, I would label this tragic.. but for someone 28 years old.. seems like they are just plain stupid. Call me insensitive, but some humans deserve the Darwin Award.

[DURHAM D]

13. Ok - You are beyond insensitive.

[underseasurveyor]

15. Raccoons, like cats and dogs

run much faster than people can. Duh!

BTW, You are insensitive.

[Kennah]

17. Because EVERYBODY was Kung Fu fighting?

Wild animals by and large are much faster than humans when they attack. Kicking a raccoon would likely get a raccoon biting your chins.

I agree with fighting back, but fighting back against a group of raccoons unless you have a stick, knife, or gun isn't going to be very effective.

[Zalatix]

18. When most people come under attack their BPM goes over 125 due to adrenaline...

When that happens, reason goes right out of the window: some choose irrationally to fight, others blindly choose flight. This lady chose flight. Most have to be specifically trained to control their reactions when a crisis threatens to drive up their adrenaline, like an attack like this would do.

Logically speaking, "Darwin Award" went too far as a critique of this woman's reaction.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

4. I'd say good dog but he started it. Eh. Good dog anyway for helping its human.

[magical thyme]

5. is there rabies in Washington?

because that's not normal racoon behavior. They're normally nocturnal and wild animals usually avoid humans. Maybe it was a family?

[HiPointDem]

8. yes. mother & kids were treed, the others came in defense. so said the local authorities.

her dog was off-leash.

[MnFats]

21. uptick

last month a neighbor called the city's animal control (st.paul area) to respond to a raccoon acting strangely in the middle of the day...he took one look at it and decided to forgo the trap bit and shot it straightaway...test was positive for rabies....neighborhood is apprehensive because warden guy said where there's one, there's usually more than one...takes at least two of course but they can travel even when they're sick.

[Surya Gayatri]

6. Killer raccoons? Small rodents can do some serious damage...

e.g. the killer rabbit!

[HiPointDem]

7. her dog treed a mother racoon & its kids. the other racoons were family.

[-..__...]

10. It could have been much worse...

thank God it wasn't a pack of honey badgers... they don't give a fuck.

[Poll_Blind]

11. The raccoons where I live are not to be fucked with. nt

PB

[Aerows]

16. The ones where I live

Will stroll right up on the porch and act like they belong there. I had to quit leaving food out for the cats. I went out on the porch one night and I was like, "Look at all these big kitties..." Then I realized they weren't kitties, they were a pack of raccoons. They didn't even run from me.

[Poll_Blind]

19. I had basically the exact thing happen. Back porch, late at night. I can't remember...

...why I wanted to shoo them off but there was some reason. So I slide open the porch door and I'm all making cat-hiss noises and stuff to get them to scram. There were three of 'em. The first two sort of amble off absent-mindedly but the third one stands on his hind legs like "Oh, hey, who're you? I think I can take you, old man. What do you think about that?"

Now I'm physically making shooing motions because the psychic connection between the raccoon and I allowed me to read his thoughts and I'm a little hurt- "Hey, uncool! I'm not that old."

But he ain't moving. Standing on hind legs, little beady eyes just staring right at me in perfect concentration, while them little hands play over the cement in case there was a Cadbury egg or a chicken liver or something that he might not want to miss.

Eventually I realize I want to get a stick and poke his uppity ass with it. I just want to at this point, because fuck this raccoon. He's telepathically called me old and, damnit, if there do happen to be any Cadbury eggs or chicken livers on my back porch, they're mine.

And then I realize the best way to win this battle is to go back inside, close the patio door and fuck that racoon. I hope he found a bunch of unexploded landmines from WWII on my porch, but I know, deep down, it was probably a Cadburdy egg.

I've had lots of similar experiences, usually without the name-calling. Because of how close it is to the river, and because the campus is actually a giant arboretum, I've seen troupes of raccoons 15-20 strong moving through the middle of the University of Oregon campus at like, I have no idea, like 3am or some silly shit like that. Same with Hendricks park, which is a park on a hill even closer to the river.

15-20 raccoons and I start walking the opposite direction at 50 yards.

PB

[Capt.Rocky300]

12. My wife has been a wildlife.....

....rehaber for years here in Washington. She said distemper is the likely culprit for this type of group attack. Six or eight years ago the raccoon population in the northwest part of the state was nearly wiped out by distemper. This type of aggressive behavior was one of the symptoms.

[Jim Warren]

14. Ya think?

It is unclear what caused the raccoons to have such a violent reaction, but Animal Control thought it may have been a family trying to protect its young.

Hysterical.

[pansypoo53219]

20. this week for the 2nd time i saw a chippie take down a bird. if these varmit's

we any bigger, we'd be africa.

[spinbaby]

22. They dine on our compost pile all the time

Every evening I empty the compost bucket and two minutes later there's a raccoon rummaging through the egg shells and melon rinds to see if there are any goodies. Not too bothered by the little guy--our yard backs onto the woods so we have a perpetual parade of raccoons, deer, skunks, turkey, woodchucks, bunnies, etc, etc. None of them seem particularly bothered by humans.