Jogger runs mile with rabid fox locked on her arm

[seeker_two]

Some folks are a bit quick to reach for the gun when other tools and methods might be a bit more appropriate.

Chris

...like a banana....

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

if the critter is latched on you only have one arm/hand to use. lots easier to talk about what you'll do than do it.

[280plus]

I don't know if it was here but someone told me about how their dad shot a squirrel and, thinking it was dead, he picked it up. It immediately sunk it's teeth into his knuckle and held on.  The story goes on about how the dad bit the squirrel on the head and crushed it's skull to get it off of him.   

I figure she's lucky the thing bit and held on rather than continuing to bite and release, that would have been a much nastier situation.

[MicroBalrog]

if the critter is latched on you only have one arm/hand to use. lots easier to talk about what you'll do than do it.

For the first time on this forum, I have to say I agree with csd.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

end times are nigh! 

[Gewehr98]

So earlier this summer, my Chow-Chow nipped a lady in the posterior.  The woman was moving rapidly up our driveway, unannounced and purposefully towards my wife, and the dog was on a cable leash next to us which was long enough to go about halfway down the driveway.  Long story short, we paid $210.00 for the woman's clinic visit (she got some neosporine and a band-aid), and offered our homeowner's insurance information, etc. as all responsible dog owners should.  All well and good, but during the mandated vet's office visit for the bite incident police report, I engaged my vet in a discussion about the whole rabies scenario.

Evidently, the survival rate of folks infected with the rabies virus depends on how soon they seek treatment after the bite.  A lot of it depends on where the individual is bitten, too.  If it's a short path from the bite to the brain, like a bite to the face, then you're in deep trouble.  So this jogger hustling herself and the fox to medical attention was probably a very smart thing to do.

[Matthew Carberry]

if the critter is latched on you only have one arm/hand to use. lots easier to talk about what you'll do than do it.

When did it become impossible to consider a given situation, analyze it from all the angles you can think of, use existing knowledge to fill in gaps and then make a plan?

Foxes, in general, are small, light-boned critters around 2 feet long in the body or so, going < 20 pounds easy.

That makes them similar to a large domestic cat, but without the claws.  I have experience controlling those while they are angry and I am lightly dressed.

If a fox is hanging off of your forearm (the most reasonable place for a small-mouthed animal to leap up and grab), you can simply batter it against a tree, rock or the ground until it dies or lets go.

It will be in front of you and thus accessible to your free hand.

If you kneel, it will be possible to get it pinned down with your legs while you do what you have to with your free hand.

If you already know you can draw a weapon (knife/gun/whatever) with both hands, that means you pretty much know you can kill it.

I'd say that, much as I have a pretty good idea what I'd do in most SD situations because I've thought them through and practiced a bit, I now have a reasonable plan on what to do if a fox ever latches on to my arm.  I can tweak it as the circumstances change.

[280plus]

I'd say make sure you use your non weapon forearm to defend. It would suck to have something latched on to the arm you draw with and not be able to reach your weapon with it. In my cae I'd be using a left cross forearm to block while reaching for my weapon with the right. Yes, I agree it is good to think about things like this beforehand and kind of sketch out what you might do in your head. Dogs are a lot like foxes, so it may come in handier than you think some day. I seriously doubt I'd be jogging for help with something attached to me like that, my first thought would be to get it off of me any way I could come up with.

[Sergeant Bob]

I seriously doubt I'd be jogging for help with something attached to me like that, my first thought would be to get it off of me any way I could come up with.

Which is the exact (natural) impulse she was fighting. She may have been afraid if she dislodged it immediately, there was a good possibility she would lose the animal or be mauled even worse. I've dealt with some real p'od wild animals (albeit not rabid) and there is no way I would want would want one running loose around me. They are scary.

[280plus]

Point taken, and duly noted. How about "make it dead any way I could?"

[Sergeant Bob]

Point taken, and duly noted. How about "make it dead any way I could?"

No, I'm not trying to make a point, just offering another possibility without knowing the woman's thought process. I'm just saying maybe being under such duress, she was so focused on one thing that to do it differently never entered her mind.

[280plus]

Ohhhh, guess I missed the point. 

[Tallpine]

What about just shooting the dang thing before it bit your foot in the first place ?   :rolleyes:

Foxes run away.  A fox coming towards a human is just not right.

[Matthew Carberry]

From the little in the story, it may have run up and attacked without warning. 

If she was jogging and it came out of the bushes blindsiding her, avoiding the attack might have been impossible in reality.

[280plus]

Takes wearing a fox stole to a whole new level, eh? My grsanny had a fox stole, creepy. 

The jaw had a spring thingy that was used to clip it to the tail or something. Hard to remember exactly.

[Antibubba]

I figure she's lucky the thing bit and held on rather than continuing to bite and release, that would have been a much nastier situation.

And if it was sunk into her arm, it might have been much more injurious to dislodge it.

We can all sit here and talk about what she should have done but, she did what she did and it turned out well. She is one tough lady and I have to commend her for keeping a cool head under extreme duress.

Yup. 

There's one more thing to consider: She's a runner or jogger.  I couldn't run a mile to my car, let alone with a crazed animal clamped onto me.  And, as painful as it sounds, she may have stayed as cool as she did because of the endorphins released while running--she probably didn't really feel it much until she was driving off.