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Police Shoot Fisher After It Attacks
GLENVILLE, Feb. 27
By WNYT Staff
http://www.wnyt.com/x12247.xml?sb=x183&ag=x995)
A Glenville woman may have
to undergo rabies treatments after being attacked Monday night by a 12-pound,
weasel-like animal called a fisher.
The animal tested positive
Tuesday for rabies.
The 61-year-old woman says
the fisher attacked her when she went to take her garbage out to her garage.
She says the animal
latched onto her foot and wouldn't let go until she had struck it repeatedly
with a fire extinguisher. The two-foot-long fisher then ran into her house
through the door she left open, and the woman had to chase it out.
Earlier that evening
Police were called after a man said an animal resembling an otter went after his
dog. They managed to get away.
Police were able to track
the fisher through the tracks it left in the snow, and one of the officers shot
and killed it.
The carcass was sent to
the state's wildlife lab where it tested positive for rabies.
Fishers are large martens.
They don't usually attack humans but are known for eating porcupines.
The New York State wildlife pathologist, Ward Stone, was sent the carcass of
the Fisher that attacked the dog and
woman. The Fisher carcass tested positive for rabies. He
said the nose of the Fisher bore the teeth marks of a raccoon and concluded that
the rabies came from the raccoon bite.
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