Man Injured By Bobcat Is First Case In Plano's Recorded History
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PLANO (CBSDFW.COM) - The City of Plano is reassuring visitors to its parks after the first recorded human injuries from a bobcat happened this week.
The victim said he goes to the park with his dog about three times a week, but this is the first time he's ever come this close to a bobcat.
"So, just out walking my dog, and I got attacked by a bobcat," Logan Ortolf said on a video he shot himself.
When you're arms can still hold your phone to shoot selfies, there's a good chance you're going to make it, but Ortolf wasn't so sure when he found himself between his dog, Harley, and a bobcat in Plano's Hoblitzelle Park.
"So I kind of walk over there, and as soon as I get kind of in between where I know what it is she's barking at and her, I hear a big growl," Ortolf said.
He said he had just let Harley off her leash when she found the bobcat along the shore of the creek they often walk. He said Harley lunged at the bobcat before it jumped on the dog from the bushes.
"And it got onto her, so I just reached down, grabbed it by the neck and tried to throw it into the woods, but it like latched onto my arm, scratched me a couple of times, so after that I just grabbed it by the tail and the neck and just threw it into the woods up against a tree, and it ran off," Ortolf said.
After four shots for tetanus and about 30 shots as a precaution against rabies, Ortolf said he's not staying away from the park, and he hopes others won't either.
"A lot of people are like, no I'm not taking my kid to the parks anymore. That's just ridiculous. It's like not going outside 'cause your neighbor got struck by lightning. It makes no sense. It's not going to happen to you. I guarantee you in the next five years no one else is going to be attacked by a bobcat," Ortolf said.
The City of Plano doesn't go that far, but in a statement a city spokesperson points out that this is the first human injury caused by a bobcat in Plano's recorded history. The statement added, "We strongly urge Plano residents to keep their dogs on leashes in parks or any other public areas."
Ortolf said he's learned his lesson and will keep Harley on a leash from now on, and he hopes no one will blame the bobcat.
"I don't want them to hunt the bobcat or anything. No. Me and the bobcat are still cool," Ortolf said.
Although he and his doctors don't believe it's likely he contracted rabies from the bobcat, Ortolf said as a precaution he will still have to go back for four more rounds of shots over the next month.
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