June 27 (UPI) -- An 80-year-old woman sustained injuries when she fought off a rabid bobcat with a sickle on her New Hampshire farm, her son said.
Elsie Dabrowski was tending roses growing near the chicken coop of her Sunapee, N.H., farm on Sunday evening when she was attacked by a bobcat. The animal was later found by health officials to have rabies.
The bobcat bit her left cheek and scratched her arms and back. She responded by fighting the animal off with a sickle she used as a garden implement. Her five dogs got involved in the fight as well. Gene Dabrowski, her son, heard the commotion and arrived, shotgun in hand, to kill the bobcat.
Elsie Dabrowski's received 50 to 60 stitches for her injuries, Gene Dabrowski told the Concord Monitor. She plans to have a rabies shot.
The dogs also received anti-rabies booster injections.
Local wildlife officials took the carcass of the bobcat. It had porcupine quills in its mouth, and Gene Dabrowski, an experienced trapper, suspected the bobcat was unwell.
"The animal was sick and he was looking for an easy meal with the chickens, so he came here," Gene Dabrowski told WBZ-TV, Boston.
The state's bobcat population has grown since hunting them was outlawed in 1989. The incident Sunday is the first time a bobcat was found with rabies in New Hampshire since 2013, state wildlife officials said.
