Earlier this week, a wild raccoon attacked a baby inside his parents’ home in Idaho. Thankfully, the baby survived and the animal did not have rabies. Idaho Fish and Game reports that the infant was strapped into an infant carrier after returning home from an outing with his mother. No one knows how the raccoon got into the house.
The mother was able to grab the raccoon and get it off her child, and then she brought her baby to the hospital. The baby’s father and an official later found the raccoon still inside the home and killed it.
Despite this news, Idaho Fish and Game says raccoon attacks on people are rare.
“While raccoons are a common species across Idaho, reports of attacks on humans are extremely rare,” the agency writes in a press release. “And while raccoons have a reputation as a potential carrier of rabies, only one case of raccoon rabies has been documented in Idaho.”
Idaho Fish and Game further explains that raccoons generally avoid humans, but that can change if the animal feels threatened. Furthermore, humans should refrain from purposefully feeding raccoons or other wild animals and from incidentally attracting them by leaving food unattended outside.