Woman drowns a rabid raccoon in a puddle after it attacked her

Deadly action: Rachel Borch, 21, realized she had to act fast when confronted with a rabid raccoon near her home in Hope, Maine on June 2. Photo / Facebook

A woman says a rabid raccoon attacked her while she was out running, so she drowned it in a puddle with her bare hands.

Rachel Borch was jogging in the woods near her home in Hope, Maine on June 2 when she spotted the raccoon charging at her with its teeth bared.

The 21-year-old told the Bangor Daily News that she knew the animal was going to bite her, so she held out her hands to avoid getting bitten elsewhere, reports Daily Mail.

The raccoon latched onto Borch's thumb and quickly started scratching at her hands and arms.

Borch said she noticed a puddle in a nearby swampy area and ran over with the rabid animal still biting down on her thumb.

"I didn't think I could strangle it with my bare hands... With my thumb in its mouth, I just pushed its head down into the muck," she said.

"It was still struggling and clawing at my arms. It wouldn't let go of my thumb."

Borch held its head underwater until it drowned.

She said the raccoon's arms fell to the side but its chest was still heaving slowly when she was able to pull her thumb out of its mouth.

Borch said she was hyperventilating as she ran home, but remembers looking back to see if the raccoon had started chasing her again.

"If there hadn't been water on the ground, I don't know what I would have done. It really was just dumb luck. I've never killed an animal with my bare hands. I'm a vegetarian. It was self-defense," she said.

The young woman is now receiving rabies exposure treatment at the hospital.

She has already had six shots so far, including the rabies vaccine, and is set to have her final injection this weekend.