You’ve heard of Kung Fu Panda, but Massachusetts might have just discovered the “Kung Fu Trash Panda.” Somerville resident Katherine Vanbuskirk had recently been sprinkling coyote urine in her garden to ward off raccoons she had spotted around her neighborhood. However, her pee protection wasn’t enough, as she was viciously ambushed by an aggressive trash panda while letting her pet dogs out around midnight.
“It flew at me from several different directions… all I could do was scream,” Vanbuskirk recalled. The wild raccoon was absolutely relentless as it kept charging after her after she repeatedly attempted to shake it off. “This is horrible. This is [a] nightmare,” she told WFXT via FOX19. “I kept saying it to myself because I couldn’t find any other words. I just encountered a monster.” She was treated with rabies shots and antibiotics at a local hospital, but the mental trauma may follow her for life.
And who could blame her? She probably won’t be able to look at raccoons the same way after this nerve-racking incident. It might have been because she had the scent of coyote urine on her, so perhaps the trash panda saw her as a threat to its territory instead of being scared off. “It’s called Wildlife for a reason 🦝,” as one Facebook commenter put it. That comment reflects what many are now wondering: what exactly provoked the attack? “They are nocturnal. It may have had babies nearby, as they aren’t normally aggressive 😳,” guessed another. It could also very well have had rabies.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t believe Sommerville has Kung-Fu Master raccoons,” jokes a Reddit user. They continue, saying how they are confident raccoons will usually run away from people “unless they are cornered or feel threatened.” However, not everyone agrees. Another user replied, saying how they have encountered rather territorial raccoons that have hissed and spat at them.
Vanbuskirk supposes that her ‘masked attacker’ was eating from the compost bin on her deck. So, it may have very well felt like she was intruding on its ‘feeding territory’ when she came out with her dogs the night of the ambush. Moral of the story? Even the fiercest-smelling pee can’t protect you from a determined trash panda. After all, raccoons aren’t as always as cute n’ cuddly as some viral social media videos make them out to be.
