Nic the hunt is on!!!!

Need some firepower to set things right. This type of aggression needs to be checked and besides I need a new hat

Lakeland, Florida-- A Lakeland woman is recovering from serious injuries in the hospital after sheriff's investigators say she was "gang attacked" by five raccoons Saturday afternoon.

 

 

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd says 74-year-old Gretchen Whitted was trying to shoo the animals away from her front door when they suddenly attacked.

 

 

"When she fell down, they enveloped her," said Sheriff Judd in a news conference called Sunday to warn the public of the aggressive raccoons.

 

 

"She's literally bitten and scratched from face and the chest all the way down through the legs."

 

 

Raccoons are known to be aggressive when going after food, but the sheriff called Saturday's attack very unusual.

 

 

"Not in all my years in Florida have I known of a gang attack by raccoons on an individual," Sheriff Judd said.

 

 

Christy Steinmetz lives next door to Whitted and ran across the street when she heard her neighbor's screams.

 

 

"I've never seen anything like it," Steinmetz said of the attack and her neighbors deep wounds. "They were deep lacerations. You could see flesh."

 

 

Sheriff Judd called a news conference Sunday to warn parents in the Lakeland neighborhood about the potential danger.

 

 

"They've attacked once. If someone frightens them, will they attack again?" Judd asked.

 

 

Polk County Animal Control officers fanned out, placing traps across the neighborhood, in hopes of finding the raccoons involved.

 

 

"Even if we capture a lot of raccoons [Sunday night], we can't be sure they are our suspect raccoons," Sheriff Judd said.

 

If caught, the animals will be tested for rabies and possibly destroyed.

 No doubt about it, Raccoons can be nasty.

ha! This reminded me of when I was in high school. I was writing my senior thesis paper on whether or not the use of animals in labs was cruelty or not, when I heard a terrible raukus outside the window.

I ran out onto the deck only to see my father pummeling a raccoon in the creek with a baseball bat!

Ahhhh, the irony of life.