Frightening video shows rabid bobcat attack Florida wildlife officer
What was supposed to be a casual stroll around the neighborhood on a warm, sunny day quickly turned into a nightmare for a Florida family and their dog.
Karen Morse was grabbing her sneakers as her 13-year-old grandson, Robert, stepped outside with her dog, Sammy. Morse was making her way to the front door to meet the pair for a walk last Thursday when she heard a loud yelp and a growl.
She ran outside and found her small, black-haired dog wrestling with a wild animal — a bobcat, Morse later discovered.
“All of a sudden I heard a terrible awful noise. I came running out. The bobcat was right here on the dog,” Morse told CBS affiliate WTSP. “I screamed at my grandson, ‘Pick Sammy up, pick Sammy up.’”
The bobcat scratched Robert’s leg as he freed the dog from the animal’s grip. Robert scooped up the injured dog, which suffered five puncture wounds in the neck, as the bobcat sprinted through the open door and onto a dining room chair inside.
“He lumbered through the living room,” Morse described to WTSP. “He jumped on the glass.”
Finally, the cat made its way back outside through an open sliding glass door, and Morse called the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
The cat was pacing back and forth on the family’s patio when wildlife officers arrived at the Sarasota County home.
“The cat was aggressive. For him to come in that front door, attack that dog, through the living room and into the lanai ... very aggressive,” Morse said.
Two wildlife officers, each with a catch pole in hand, corned the bobcat as the family watched and taped the encounter from inside.
“Don’t get attacked!” Morse yelled from behind the glass door as her dog barked in the background.
But as one officer coaxed the cat out from behind a chair and the other managed to catch its neck, the creature lunged at the officer.
Rabid bobcatWATCH: A Venice family went to walk their dog and look what ran in! This bobcat is rabid, and now there's a warning out for residents in Sarasota: http://on.wtsp.com/2iP2T5m
Posted by 10News WTSP on Wednesday, January 4, 2017
The officers remained calm and continued wrangling the cat until they managed to take him away.
The next day Morse found out the bobcat was rabid.
The Florida Department of Health in Sarasota County says at least two bobcat attacks have been reported within 4 miles of each other in Venice, and officials issued a rabies alert for both Venice and North Port for 60 days.
Needless to say, Morse’s entire family has decided to get shots for rabies as a precaution.