A coyote that attacked and bit a woman in Fall River on Monday tested positive for rabies, according to the Fall River Police Department.
At about 5:45 a.m., police were called after a 54-year-old woman walking her dog near the South Winds Apartments in the North End was attacked by a coyote. Her neighbors heard her screaming and fending off the animal after it bit both her legs and arm, according to reports by The Boston Globe and The Herald News.
Police on Wednesday morning said the coyote tested positive for rabies and said that anyone who had direct contact with the coyote should call the Massachusetts Department of Public Health at 617-983-6800.
Officials at the Department of Public Health could not be immediately reached.
After attacking the woman, the coyote confronted workers of a grounds crew at the Fall River Country Club less than a mile away from the South Winds Apartments. The coyote tried to attack one of the employees who managed to scare it away, outlets reported.
When police arrived, they shot and killed the animal after it became aggressive.
“(Police) were able to spot the coyote, and it took an aggressive stance towards the officer,” a police spokesperson told The Herald News. “Unfortunately, the manner in which the coyote was acting so aggressively, they were forced to put it down.”
Fall River Police Sgt. Moses Pereira told Boston.com that the coyote attacked one person and tried to attack a second before police used deadly force.
Pereira told MassLive that the woman was still in the hospital as of Tuesday evening but did not know whether she remained there on Wednesday morning.
The attacks by the coyote on the woman and the encounter at the country club are so far the only reported incidents, according to Pereira.
What is rabies?
Rabies is a serious disease that affects the brain and spinal cord of mammals such as cats, dogs, raccoons, other mammals and people, according to the state’s Bureau of Infectious Disease and Laboratory Sciences.
It is rare for people to get rabies, and of the 55,000 people who die of rabies every year around the globe, only one or two deaths happen in the United States, according to the laboratory.
After a person is exposed to rabies, they can be given shots around the bite or scratch to help fight the virus where it entered the body. A person will also get four to five vaccine shots in their arm over several weeks, which can be life-saving if given before a person starts to get sick.
