New Hampshire

Bobcat Killed, Tested for Rabies, After Attacking VT Woman

A game warden shot and killed the animal after it also charged him.

A Vermont woman was injured when attacked by a bobcat suspected of having rabies—and there was nearly a second victim.

A game warden with the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department shot and killed the Bobcat Wednesday in Hartford, Vermont after saying the animal charged out of its hiding place under a vehicle, toward the officer.

NBC 5 News, an affiliate of necn, reported the warden was responding to a report that the bobcat attacked a woman in an apartment complex, causing minor injuries.

Wildlife officials said the victim was treated at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in nearby Lebanon, New Hampshire, and is expected to recover.

The Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department said it’s now waiting on test results to confirm if the animal had rabies.

“Having a bobcat attack somebody is certainly unusual,” observed Lt. Dennis Amsden of Fish & Wildlife. “And in this case—two different scenes in a very short period of time.”

Amsden told NBC 5 News that bobcats are more common in Vermont than most people know.

He said because healthy animals generally stay far from people, they are rarely seen, but that does not mean the population here is sparse.

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