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Lincoln Borough Man Receives Rabies Vaccinations After He Was Bitten By Rabid Coyote

LINCOLN (KDKA) -- A coyote, which later proved to be rabid, attacked a homeowner when the man went out for a walk Monday evening.

The 30-year-old victim did not want to identified, but he told KDKA-TV's Ralph Iannotti that he was with his 3- and 4-year-old daughters Monday evening walking along a trail off Harrison Road in Lincoln Borough. He said he turned around and spotted the coyote following them. And, instead of the animal running in the opposite direction, he kept trailing them.

As the coyote moved in closer to the father and his children, the man threw a cinder block at him, striking him. The animal approached closer, the man kicked him, and the coyote lunged at him, biting his left leg above the knee. The man grabbed the animal off his leg and threw him against the tree. The coyote then disappeared into the nearby woods.

Neither child was hurt by the coyote; a family member called 911, and the man was taken to Jefferson Hospital, where he received the first of four post-exposure rabies vaccine.

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Lincoln Borough Police shot the coyote Tuesday morning not far from where the incident took place. The Pennsylvania Game Commission brought it to the County Health Dept., where it tested positive for rabies.

A neighbor who lives up the road from where the incident took place, Glenn Bumbarger, said he often hears coyotes barking and yelping at night.

"Everybody has a different number of them, but I've counted upwards of 14 [coyotes running together]," Bumbarger said.

The Health Dept. warned that coyotes are pack animals, and there may be others in that area of Lincoln Borough which are are infected with rabies.

The Department said rabies is almost always fatal if left untreated, but the vaccine is highly effective. This coyote is the seventh rabid animal reported in Allegheny County this year. Last month, a rabid stray kitten was found in Robinson Township and a rabid raccoon was found in Millvale.

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