Video: Girl Screams as Wild Animal Latches on to Her Leg, Then Mom Comes Running and Sends Animal Flying

By Amanda Thomason and December 5, 2022 at 1:59pm

Editor’s Note: Our readers responded strongly to this story when it originally ran; we’re reposting it here in case you missed it.

The term “momma bear” exists because of stories like these: Times when moms go into protection mode and seem to have super strength when their little ones are threatened.

That can show up in a variety of ways when their children face danger, whether that danger is because of bullying, cars getting too close — or potentially rabid animals on the attack.

One mom from Canterbury, Connecticut, got an early morning wake-up call when she heard her daughter start screaming in terror after setting foot outside their house.

Rylee, the young girl, was heading to school at 7:45 a.m. on Dec. 2 when she was attacked by a wild raccoon. It grabbed her ankle and would not let go, even though she kept trying to kick it off.

Mom Kelsey MacNamara burst out the front door, spotted the offending creature, and immediately scruffed it — but it took some tugging to get it to let go of her daughter’s leg.

At one point, MacNamara was holding her daughter sideways, balancing her on her hip while holding the raccoon by the scruff in the other hand as she disentangled them.

“Go inside! Go inside!” she yelled to her daughter as she set her down and pushed the door open, while still trying to keep the scrabbling animal as far away from them both as possible.

“It’s a rabid raccoon, get in the house!” she yells to someone off-screen.

After one swing, MacNamara managed to grab the raccoon by the scruff with both hands and fling it far into the front yard, running back inside the house before it had a chance to consider a repeat attack.

After the harrowing ordeal, MacNamara posted the video of the attack on Facebook at her daughter’s request.

“Per Rylee’s request [to] ‘show everyone what the [raccoon] did’ we are headed to get checked out for rabies following this unprovoked [raccoon] attack,” the caption read. “I can’t tell you how proud I am of this Brave girl!!”

But more people had high praise for the brave mom, who didn’t waste a second grabbing the misbehaving animal with her bare hands and throwing it, protecting her daughter and warning others nearby.

In the comments on the post, MacNamara revealed that they were both at the hospital receiving treatment.

“We are at the ER now both getting the rabies shot series,” she wrote. “We are okay!”

She also said that though her daughter is shaken up, she got away with just a few puncture wounds thanks to the jeans she was wearing.

According to WTIC-TV, a wildlife biologist with Connecticut DEEP, Geoff Krukar, said that based on footage he’d seen, the raccoon was behaving abnormally.

“The mother behaved in a way that was very heroic,” he told WTIC. “I think she, she did everything, everything correctly by avoiding getting bit and warning the neighbor to stay back and, and getting the child to safety.

“If they see a raccoon that’s acting abnormally, that … could be frothing at the mouth, pursuing them, getting in close proximity, then they should definitely report that to the authorities.”

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