Watch CT Mom's Heroic Rescue As Raccoon Attacks Daughter

ASHFORD, CT — A 5-year-old girl was attacked by a raccoon Friday morning outside her Windham County home, according to reports.

Security footage of the encounter shows Rylee MacNamara standing on the stoop outside her residence in Ashford when a raccoon latches onto her leg. She screams and tries unsuccessfully to kick the animal off, at which point her mother, Logan MacNamara, comes to her aid, removing the raccoon, getting Rylee indoors, and, eventually, hurling the animal across the yard, according to the video, which Logan posted on Facebook. View footage of the attack here.

“I was going out to get on the bus and a raccoon was there and tried to attack me,” Rylee told WFSB. “It didn’t want to go off of my leg.”

The raccoon broke skin during the attack, and both mother and daughter are undergoing a series of rabies shots, according to Logan, who said Saturday on Facebook that the raccoon remained at large.

“I can’t tell you how proud I am of this brave girl,” Logan wrote on Facebook, noting the attack was unprovoked.

State wildlife biologist Geoff Krukar told FOX 61 that the animal in the video appeared to be ill. Raccoons are primary rabies carriers in the northeastern U.S., according to the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. When infected with rabies or other diseases, they may display unprovoked aggression, impaired movement, paralysis or lack of coordination, unusually friendly behavior and disorientation.

For more information, visit portal.ct.gov/DEEP/Wildlife/Fact-Sheets/Raccoon.