Woman Attacked by Rabid Raccoon, Drowns it in Handy Puddle

Maine, USA — While running on a narrow wooded trail, 21-year-old Rachel Borch reportedly met up with a raccoon, which lunged at her and attacked. Apparently there was quite a frenzy of ferocity from the fearless beast.

‘Imagine the Tasmanian devil,’ she said. ‘It was terrifying.’

I’m impressed that a young lady knows what the Tasmanian Devil is. Kudos.

When she tried to restrain the attacking animal, the nasty gnashing ‘coon glommed onto her and locked its jaws onto her thumb, frantically scratching at her all the while. Without two free hands, Rachel was unable to choke the life out of the murderous mammal. After she noticed that she’d dropped her phone into a puddle, she decided the thing to do was drown the writhing rascal.

‘I didn’t think I could strangle [the raccoon] with my bare hands,’ she said, so, ‘with my thumb in its mouth, I just pushed its head down into the muck.’

As you can imagine, the raccoon kept scratching at her. But while it still held life, it refused to let go of her thumb.

Borch said she held it there for what felt like an eternity until finally it stopped struggling and ‘its arms sort of fell to the side, its chest still heaving really slowly.’

After its life faded away and its grip relaxed, she took to her heels in a panic. Knowing little about rabies, she feared the worst:

Oh, God, what if I just start foaming at the mouth and can’t find my way back?

(In reality, it takes weeks or months before an infected human will show rabies symptoms.)

The animal was later retrieved and tested, and was indeed rabid. Rachel immediately began treatment for rabies, which is fatal if not treated.

Rachel was a vegetarian, but that didn’t prevent her from taking the life of an attacking animal (nor should it have). And she’ll never again long to hug or cuddle a ‘coon.

I’ve never killed an animal with my bare hands. I’m a vegetarian. It was self-defense.

I always thought of raccoons as this cute, cuddly forest animal. I just will never look at them the same way.

Of that I have no doubt.

Russ Chastain

Editor & Contributing Writer Russ Chastain is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has spent his life learning about hunting, shooting, guns, ammunition, gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. He started toting his own gun in the woods at age nine and he's pursued deer with rifles since 1982, so his hunting knowledge has been growing for more than three and a half decades. His desire and ability to share this knowledge with others has also grown, and Russ has been professionally writing and editing original hunting & shooting content since 1998. Russ Chastain has a passion for sharing accurate, honest, interesting hunting & shooting knowledge and stories with people of all skill levels.