‘Screaming for help’: Vancouver woman, dog healing from raccoon attack

Carol Alexander said she started "kicking it and screaming for help" as she struck the raccoon with her dog's leash. She was certain the critter would kill her pooch.

Warning: This story contains disturbing imagery that may upset and trigger some readers. Discretion is advised.

According to Vancouver resident Carol Alexander, it was her dog’s barking that triggered the attack.

She and her daughter were walking her chihuahua Mo near East 47th and Fraser streets on Saturday evening, when they spotted a couple of raccoons walking along a fence towards them. Alexander’s pooch — on-leash — started barking, and one of the critters “just jumped down off the fence, tried to attack him.”

“I picked him up, held him up in the air and then it just started biting my legs, crawling up me,” Alexander told Global News. “Then (Mo) wiggled away. He didn’t know to stay and he got down, and then it jumped on his back and was biting his back.”

Alexander said she started “kicking it and screaming for help” as she struck the raccoon with her dog’s leash. She was certain the critter would kill Mo, who weighs about 15 pounds.

“It just mauled my legs. The dog got away at that point, but it still kept attacking me,” she recalled. “I turn around and it was chasing me and like, biting the backs of my legs.”

Her daughter had run away, crying, she added. Soon, a neighbour came out with a stick.

“I was bleeding quite a lot and ended up on somebody’s porch,” Alexander said. “It’s one way to meet your neighbours, I guess. They were very kind.”