Footage captured on home surveillance cameras showed Sherri Russo, 61, desperately trying to chase the rabid animal away for 45 seconds. Ms. Russo, 61, was identified as the victim by Ed Russo, a CBS meteorologist, who posted the video on Facebook and said she was his cousin. He wrote: “A cousin of mine was attacked by a rabid fox in Ithaca, New York. It is OK. But this video is crazy!” He said the fox had tested positive for rabies after being caught and put down. Mrs. Russo, the victim, was taken to the hospital and treated for 16 stab wounds. She was given a rabies vaccine and antibiotics.
“He just hit me”
Mrs Russo, from Caroline, New York, US, said: “I was so scared he was going to hit me, attack my face and eat me in my front yard. “When I got the first bite on the outside of my leg, I thought it was our neighbor’s dog. “Never in my wildest dreams did I realize there was a rabid fox.” She added: “When I kicked him out and he came back at me I knew something bad was going to happen and then it did. Then it kept happening.” She described how the fox bit her hand and “just hit me”. A neighbor was out on his tractor when he heard her screams, jumped over his fence and came running with a stick, chasing the fox away. Mrs Russo said: “The fox must have seen him and just as I was able to get the last kick in he got distracted and ran away.” The animal attacked someone else before it was caught. It comes after a rabid fox in Washington was captured and euthanized after it bit nine people on Capitol Hill in April.
