NJ man recalls raccoon attack: 'I could see these bright yellow eyes'

A man from Gloucester County now needs medical treatment after being attacked by a rabid raccoon. The animal has since been captured. Authorities are trying to track another raccoon seen fighting with a sickle. Action News photojournalist Dave Edwards spoke with the man who was attacked. This morning I got up to go and get a piece of machinery to unload a load that I had on my trailer. As I was walking there, there was an unusual screaming, screeching sound that was coming from the woods about 50 feet from me. And I turned and looked over, and I could see these bright yellow eyes. I stopped, and then I said, well, let me get in the house. And as I was walking to leave, a raccoon came out of the shrubbery and charged me. And I kind of fell backwards, and I think that's when it bit the front part of my right leg. I didn't know that I was bitten until I had gotten into the house, because I guess my adrenaline was going. I didn't know anything, and then when I looked down, then I noticed the blood. I came back and was knocking on all the neighbors' doors and letting everybody know there's a raccoon that attacked me. Keep your pets in and, you know, the animals and, you know, your children. There's a lot of people from Rowan University who jog through here. I get a text. The girl said, she said, oh, the raccoon you're talking about is next door. It was chasing some of the residents at that house. They were able to get away from it, and on the way to the hospital, I called animal control. So when he finally got to it, he said the eyes were glassy, and it was saliva coming out of his mouth. Caught it with a snare and put it into the cage. It somehow was biting onto it, and it took him maybe about five, ten minutes to get that snare out of his mouth. Not necessarily just in rural areas. It's a lot of suburban areas, a lot of urban areas that wildlife live, and anything could affect them, any kind of disease or something. You have to be aware of your surroundings. If you do get bitten or if you get scratched or your pet or whatever, go and get treatment. Don't wait to have that because, you know, rabies is fatal in humans if you don't get treatment.