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Raccoon attack sends a woman & her dog to the ER

November 9th, 2009 · Comments

Several readers wrote in about a raccoon attack reported on KING5 today that left one Queen Anne resident and her dog with injuries requiring a trip to the ER. According to the report,Kelly Gilliam was walking her dog, Winky, at around 10 p.m. on Monday when a raccoon jumped out of a nearby bush and attacked them, sending all three toppling down a hill.

Gilliam ended up being hospitalized for four days, having 12 gashes on her body and needing over a dozen rabies shots – the doctors assumed the raccoon had been infected at the time of the attack. Winky needed five staples near his tail. Both are OK, though obviously shaken up.

Although police responded to the attack, according to the report, state laws and citywide wildlife restrictions prohibit the hunting or trapping of a raccoon without a permit, unless it attacks crops or domestic animals. This seem rather ridiculous, as in this case the raccoon attacked a person.

In the end the raccoon got away and for all we know could still be at large on Queen Anne, so residents should be careful, especially when walking their dogs or letting their pets outside. Back in August a 4-year-old Maltese living on Queen Anne lost her right hind leg and part of her tail to a raccoon attack in her owner’s backyard.

The KING5 story did not mention which part of Queen Anne the attack took place in. If anyone has any more information about this attack or any other similar incidents, please comment below or email us at tips@queenanneview.com so that we can warn the neighborhood.

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  • carolynmag
    My dog was just attacked sunday evening in my fenced back yard. It was November 22nd at 7:45pm. I let him out to do his business and less than 30 seconds later heard the most horrific cries. I dashed out to find a HUGE raccoon on top of him rolling him. I grabbed a broom and yelled and he didn't let go. Finally I punched it with the broom handle and he released for a second giving my maltese time to escape. The raccoon turned and began chasing after my dog. I had to fend it off from the open door! No one will do anything about this!
  • Surprised
    There is a dead raccoon that had flies swarming around it today on the bike path that goes to Smith Cove park.
  • OSP Walker
    How scary! No one wants to believe that raccoons can be so aggressive but the news is full of similar stories. I'm also worried about leptospirosis, a bacteria that is potentially deadly to dogs and people. It's transmitted by direct contact with the urine of an infected raccoon so dogs can get it just by sniffing around raccoon latrines and standing water. Vets in our area have plenty of first-hand stories of dogs that have died from this. Given the high incidence of disease in urban raccoon populations, I think the laws need to be revisited.
  • ZephyrV2
    "state laws and citywide wildlife restrictions prohibit the hunting or trapping of a raccoon without a permit, unless it attacks crops or domestic animals"

    Isn't the dog a domestic animal? The dog was attacked as well.

    I used to live in an apartment building on the north end of Dexter. The people who lived below me habitually fed raccoons. Often times they'd have a dozen or so on their patio. Bad idea all around.
  • 6_11_000
    I agree with gailh! How many people and pets must suffer before someone does something about these bold & possibly rabid varmints??? People and pets are simply minding their own business and getting attacked! This is unbelievable! PLEASE someone...change the laws...let us trap them, hunt them....whatever it takes to reduce the population or get rid of it completely.
  • Ballard2002
    It is literally more likely that the dog gave rabies to the raccoon. Bats are the only wild animals in the state to ever be found with the disease. Raccoons in the west don't carry rabies. East coast media started a national raccoons=rabies scare and now thousands of people in the the rest of the US get painful and expensive unnessesary rabies shots every year. West of the Mississippi it's mostly skunks foxes and coyotes that carry the disease. Though as I mentioned above our skunks foxes and coyotes are rabies free so far.
  • chiizus
    Cases of Rabies in WA as a whole are extremely slim. In Western WA, they're virtually nonexistent. I think a more likely scenario is that the raccoon had offspring nearby or was on alert for some reason (maybe some animal (or stupid teenagers) had been harassing it prior to the woman and her dog passing by.

    Though all of that being said, getting the Rabies shots is definitely the way to go. Better safe than sorry. Rabies isn't something you can fix.
  • Brendan
    She lives on Dravus, a block off of Nickerson. A friend of mine is the neighbor who ran out of his apartment and literally punted the raccoon off of her and the dog.
  • gailh
    I believe she lives off of Nickerson. Raccoons are getting really bold, I see them out in daylight all the time. In West Seattle there are many reports of missing cats recently. The city really needs to revisit this issue.
  • Oh god, so terrible.
  • mjd
    I hope she has health insurance. My husband was bit and the emergency room bill came to over $8,000!
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