Video shows Connecticut woman rescuing daughter from aggressive raccoon

ASHFORD, Conn. — A Connecticut woman and her daughter had an encounter with a raccoon that they will never forget.

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Lesley MacNamara, of Ashford, came to the rescue of her 5-year-old daughter, Rylee MacNamara, who had been bitten in the leg by the animal outside their front door on Friday morning, CT Insider reported.

“It was very good parental instinct,” Connecticut State Police Trooper Cassidy Nuccio, who responded to the 7:55 a.m. EST call for help, told the website.

A video from MacNamara’s security camera shows the raccoon clamped down on the screaming child’s left ankle.

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

Lesley MacNamara heard the commotion and came outside.

“I thought maybe she slammed her finger in the door,” Logan MacNamara told the television station. “I definitely wasn’t expecting to see a racoon wrapped around her leg.”

The cuffs on Rylee’s jeans helped protect her ankle, which was red, but not bleeding, CT Insider reported. She was not injured.

Logan MacNamara pulled the raccoon off her daughter by grabbing it on the back of its neck with her right hand. At the same time, she held onto her daughter and instructed her to go into their home.

The MacNamaras were not the only ones screaming.

The raccoon yelped as it grabbed Logan MacNamara’s shirt and held on.

The woman was finally able to extricate the animal from her shirt on her second toss attempt, hurling it onto the grass below.

It was unclear whether the animal was rabid, but mother and daughter went to an area hospital as a precaution and received rabies shots, according to WFSB.

“We just kind of panicked at first. I was more scared than anything,” Logan MacNamara told the television station.

Nuccio said that people should avoid raccoons in general because they could be rabid. She also advised that residents refrain from leaving garbage and food outside, which could attract wild animals.

“If you see one coming at you, give us a call,” Nuccio told CT Insider.

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