Saturday, March 14, 2015

75-year-old woman strangled rabid raccoon after it bit her

A 75-year-old woman from Henrico, Virginia, said she had no choice but to strangle a rabid raccoon with her bare hands.



Cas Overton said she was walking in the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden while birdwatching when a raccoon latched onto her leg and started biting. Overton said she immediately drew on her tai chi training, which she’s taught for 40 years.

“I could reach down to get it off of me, got it by the neck with both hands… so I knew what I had to do,” she said. Overton said she then put her knee on the raccoon’s neck until the raccoon stopped breathing.


YouTube link.

Since the attack Overton said she has been receiving rabies shots and treatment for the bite. In addition, Overton said she felt terrible killing the raccoon because she loves animals.

3 comments:

Ratz said...

Though done slowly, a lot of tai chi is actually remarkably martial. Punching people in places they would rather remain unpunched and poking fingers into horse's eyes to dismount the rider.

Anonymous said...

This happened not far from where I live. This lady has more guts than half of the Virginia General Assembly put together.

I guess ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

But, geez! I can see some mugger accosting her on the street, and she says, "I've strangled a raccoon with my bare hands, and he was bigger than you. You wanna play?" Brrr...

I'm also not happy that confirmed cases of rabies are occurring quite so close to where I live, and I live in the city (Richmond).

Lurker111

P.S.: And, as far as city wildlife goes, over the years I've seen raccoons, possums, squirrels, chipmunks, rats, voles, foxes, skunks, pigeons, grackles, starlings, hawks, buzzards, crows, mockingbirds, cardinals, flickers and of course cats and dogs. Just because you live in a city doesn't mean it's not a zoo out there.

Anonymous said...

I stick to chickens.