The raccoon that viciously attacked and injured a 6-year-old Elmwood Park boy as he was walking to school has tested positive for rabies, the boy’s mother told NBC New York.
Advertisement
The child and mother were trekking to 16th Avenue Elementary School in Elmwood Park at about 8:45 a.m. when the animal latched onto the child’s back and began scratching and biting his face. Walls then beat the animal…
“He’s eating well and he’s sleeping well, but it’s going to take a little bit of time to heal his stitches on his face”, said his father, Pratap Gavali.
A neighbor, hearing the mother’s screams, ran out, grabbed a fiberglas pole and knocked the raccoon off the child, Foligno said. He was released from the hospital Thursday. “Only his face was open”.
The lifeless raccoon was taken to a lab to be tested for rabies and results are due back on Friday, WCBS reports.
Resident Danny Walls has been credited for saving the boy, using a pole to beat and kill the raccoon as it gnawed on the boy’s face. I killed the raccoon.
“He came like an angel to help us”, the boy’s mother, Monali, said.
Advertisement
His mother said Wednesday she didn’t have the words to thank him. “I’m very, very much thankful to him”. Nocturnal animals should not be active in the daylight, and people should beware if a raccoon is aggressive, disoriented, and foaming at the mouth.
