Townspeople in Nottinghamshire, England found their village under threat by a pair of wild raccoon dogs, one of which terrorized and attacked multiple town pets.
The raccoon dogs escaped from an enclosure near Clarborough, according to a statement made by Nottinghamshire Police. One of the wild creatures was later discovered by Dale and Mandy Marsh, whose pet goat and pony were attacked by the wild animal.
“It was actually terrifying,” Mandy, 53, told The Independent. “We were laid in bed at about 4 a.m., and I heard such a terrifying noise like I had never heard before. It was screaming. My husband went out and opened the door, and the dog shot out.”
The couple came outside to find one of the raccoon dogs — who are not actually related to raccoons — attempting to attack their pet goat and pony.
“We ran out and this animal — we now know it’s a raccoon dog — was trying to attack our goat,” she explained. “The pony was standing in the way trying to protect the goat. The raccoon dog was trying to kill it. It was absolutely crazy. It was hissing and screaming and snarling. It was going absolutely mad.”
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Frightened for their pets, the couple immediately took matters into their own hands to fend off the wild raccoon.
“We ran in with two great big pieces of wood to try and shoo it off and try and get it to go away so we could get the animals out of the field,” Mandy continued, whose husband, Dale, was also prepared to protect their pets at whatever cost.
“The animals wouldn’t move because they were terrified, and this thing wouldn’t budge either and was just hissing,” she added. “It kept coming up, and we couldn’t get near enough to put something on it. The goat and pony were going crazy. It went on for about two hours.”
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The couple managed to fend off the raccoon dog, while their pet goat and pony were left with scratches after their encounter with the wild animal, which wandered off and sighted a dog walker.
“A woman came along with a dog not on a lead, and saw the raccoon dog,” Mandy said. “She thought it was a cat at first. It cornered the dog. She couldn’t get to it. The dog was going crazy. It was squawking and barking and my husband grabbed it.”
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In their statement, the Nottinghamshire Police warned residents of the dangerous animals on the loose.
“The animals, which are described as being the same size of a medium- to small-sized dog, are potentially dangerous if approached as they are not domesticated,” the statement read.
They also revealed that the raccoons had gone missing on Tuesday morning and asked for any residents to alert them immediately should they have any sightings of the pair of raccoon dogs.
from PEOPLE.com http://bit.ly/2I9QjuO
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