[at-l] Rabid beaver attacks in WVa

[jbryankramer at msn.com (J Bryan Kramer)]

Girl attacked by rabid beaver

SHANNONDALE, W.Va. (AP) -- An 8-year-old girl had reconstructive surgery on
her hand after being attacked by a rabid beaver in Jefferson County earlier
this month.

Robin Hays' said her daughter, Maddison, was playing along the Shenandoah
River behind their Shannondale home on July 11 when the attack occurred.

"We were getting ready for a pig roast, and she was down there playing,''
Hays told The Journal in Martinsburg. "Suddenly, I heard a blood-curdling
scream.''

Hays saw the beaver clamped onto her daughter's hand, then shook her arm to
get it free, grabbed her daughter and ran.

The beaver chased them, she said, and two men attending the pig roast
cornered the animal and killed it with a shovel.

Hays' daughter, who suffered bites on her leg and hand, was initially
treated at Jefferson Memorial Hospital.

A specialist at Loudoun County Hospital in Virginia provided treatment on
her hand that included reconstructive surgery on the tendons, nerves and
veins, Hays said. Maddison's hand was in a partial cast, and she could move
her fingers but not her thumb, Hays said.

"She's doing very well,'' Hays said.

State Division of Natural Resources officers took the dead animal, Hays
said.

The animal's brain was sent to the Jefferson County Health Department, and
then to a lab in Charleston where it tested positive for rabies, the
newspaper reported.

While rabies is common in that area, beaver attacks are rare, said Lisa
Dunn, the health department's sanitarian supervisor.

http://sundaygazettemail.com/section/APNews/News/ap0008r


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