{"id":329660,"date":"2025-12-04T08:40:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T08:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/329660\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T08:40:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T08:40:07","slug":"man-bitten-by-rabid-raccoon-after-putting-injured-animal-in-his-coat-during-rescue-attempt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/329660\/","title":{"rendered":"Man bitten by rabid raccoon after putting injured animal in his coat during rescue attempt"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

CHEROKEE COUNTY, Georgia (WUPA<\/a>) \u2014 A Cherokee County man\u2019s attempt to rescue an injured raccoon that he found in the middle of the road ended with him in the hospital being treated for a possible rabies infection.<\/p>\n

Officials at the Chattahoochee Nature Center shared the story on Facebook over the weekend, saying it was an incident \u201cthat we feel needs to be addressed.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the center, the man found the injured animal vocalizing in the road. Because he didn\u2019t have anything to contain the wild animal, he wrapped the raccoon in his coat and \u201cheld it against his chest\u201d as he drove for more than an hour to the nature center, which is not licensed to rehabilitate mammals.<\/p>\n

At some point during the drive, officials say the raccoon got somewhat free and bit the man on his face and hands. He then made a pit stop at home, wrapped the animal in a blanket using duct tape, and continued his journey to the center.<\/p>\n

The man arrived at the CNC an hour before the Wildlife Clinic was set to open, but just as local children were coming for the nature center\u2019s Thanksgiving break camp. The camp director alerted the wildlife staff about what was happening, and the staff met the man in the parking lot to secure the animal in a kennel.<\/p>\n

After much forceful insistence on our part, he finally agreed to go to the hospital for treatment while we dealt with the raccoon,\u201d the CNC staff wrote.<\/p>\n

The raccoon was euthanized and tested at Bells Ferry Veterinary Hospital. Officials say the tests confirmed that the animal had rabies.<\/p>\n

As a further complication, the staff says the man did not give the Wildlife Department or the hospital his full name and instead provided the hospital with a fake phone number. They only learned his real name when a family member called the CNC the next day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the finder\u2019s heart was in the right place, he put himself, his family, CNC\u2019s staff, volunteers, and visitors, the GWN transporter, and the staff of Bells Ferry all at risk,\u201d the center wrote. \u201cPLEASE take a minute and assess the situation before attempting to capture wildlife without direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you see a wild animal in distress, you can reach out to licensed rehabilitators through Animal Help Now and or the Georgia Wildlife Network.<\/p>\n

RELATED | Yellowstone tourists put bison calf in car because they\u2019re worried it\u2019s cold<\/a><\/p>\n

\t \t \t \t=htmlentities(get_the_title())?>%0D%0A%0D%0A=get_permalink()?>%0D%0A%0D%0A=htmlentities(‘For more stories like this one, be sure to visit https:\/\/www.eastidahonews.com\/ for all of the latest news, community events and more.’)?>&subject=Check%20out%20this%20story%20from%20EastIdahoNews” class=”fa-stack jDialog”> \t <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHEROKEE COUNTY, Georgia (WUPA) \u2014 A Cherokee County man\u2019s attempt to rescue an injured raccoon that he found…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-329660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}