Rachel Borch was admiring a gorgeous Maine afternoon recently while out for a jog when she came face-to-face with a raccoon. During the day. Baring its teeth.
The 21-year-old told BDN Maine she knew almost instantly that the animal was rabid, and as it sat in the middle of the narrow trail she was on, moving past it safely was out of the question. Retreating back the way she had come wasn’t an option, either, as the raccoon began bounding toward her. A split-second later it was at her feet.
“I knew it was going to bite me,” she said.
Borch’s options were limited. The raccoon was almost certainly going to bite her on some part of her body, so she ultimately decided to grab the animal with her hands. At least this way she could fend it off somewhat.
It did indeed bite her, latching onto her thumb so hard that, try as she might, Borch could not free herself. The raccoon began scratching her arms and legs. Something had to be done.
Borch didn’t think she had the strength to choke the raccoon to death, but a nearby puddle offered a solution. She decided to drown the raccoon, holding it under the shallow water until its arms went limp and its breathing all but stopped. She didn’t wait around to see if it had died; she freed her thumb and took off for home, running as fast as she could. Her mother took her to a local medical center, while her father went back to retrieve the raccoon’s body.
The raccoon was indeed dead. He carefully placed its body in a dog food bag, then transported it to the Maine Warden Service. Upon testing, it was determined that the raccoon was rabid.
Borch began taking the necessary rabies treatment injections, completing her final round last weekend. She is still shaken by the ordeal, saying it has forever changed her.
“If there hadn’t been water on the ground, I don’t know what I would have done,” Borch said. “It really was just dumb luck. I’ve never killed an animal with my bare hands. I’m a vegetarian. It was self-defense.
“I always thought of raccoons as this cute, cuddly forest animal,” she said. “I just will never look at them the same way.”