Have you ever been attacked by an animal?

[design_mom]

Birds! I grew up in a rural area. I have been bitten on the tush by more than one large farm bird. The farmer down the street used to let us come down to play with the kittens that were often born in the barn. However, to get to the barn, you had to get past the very mean goose that roamed around. Additionally, this farmer had a peacock and several peahens (I did not think that was weird at the time.) The peacock would occasionally decide that he wanted the barn to himself. And, oh, the horrible noises the peacock would make!!!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I've been chased by a wild turkey (broody and I got too close to her nest), flogged by a swan and a rooster (many years apart), and bitten by a horse, a dog, a few cats (at the shelter where I volunteer, maybe 3 cats have bitten me in the thousands I've handled during the past 20+ years of volunteering). The one that honestly scared me the most was the swan; those things are the devil's spawn.

Now that you mention it, I think I was mistaken when I said “goose” in my post above. It was a swan!

I remember being chased by a goose once. Had it caught me I think it could’ve done something, I don’t know what. Have had three dog bites but wouldn’t call any of them attacks. Two were when I was a kid, and the last one was as an adult, by a friend’s dog visiting my home who had a bit of an attitude problem, lol.

 

[DL1WDW2]

Somebody just said they were walking along sidewalk in line for SkyLiner and they thought the snake about to bite was a water moccasin... They do have warning signs posted, so be careful
I just moved to Florida and was standing at waters edge watching golfers and wondering if there were any crocodiles and I jokingly said to my son If you were an alligator where would you be? That was when we looked down into the water and it was watching us way too closely!
I don’t go near waters edge anymore! In Florida especially.

 

[JenBush]

Once I had some sparkly sunglasses on and went into the aviary at my local zoo. I wouldn’t say I was “attacked”, but I had 5 or 6 birds all trying to steal my sunglasses off my head at once.

 

[prairie_girl]

I know I am way overtired because I read the title as have you ever been attracted to an animal

 

[AuntieMe3]

My brother and I had a chihuahua chase us down the street on our way home from school one day. Thankfully a guy came out of his house with a broom to get it away from us and then it turned on him but we just kept running. The dog was small but terrifying, I have no doubt he would've bit us if it had got the chance.

We used to have a goat that was really mean so whenever we went into his pen to give him water, we had to grab him by his horns and hold onto them while we were in there or he'd try and attack us. As soon as we got out the gate and let go of his horns, he just rammed the you know what out of the gate. He trapped a friend of the family in the back of his truck once when he was delivering hay. Our friend had to call my husband to come out and get the goat because he was ramming the guys truck. We didn't have him for long...lol

 

[TipsyTraveler]

I grew up around farm animals and then went on to work at a wildlife sanctuary, a pet store, the zoo, and emergency veterinary hospitals, so... YES, to put it mildly.

 

[tasha99]

It's faded and gone now, but I had a scar on my finger from a bald eagle biting me with its beak. I was at a raptor rehabilitation center, and in some sort of freak accident, one of the eagles had hooked its wing on the end of a bungee cord that had been holding up some sort of perch. I yelled for help and stupidly went into the mew without grabbing gloves, so when my boss showed up, I was helping gloveless. I'm lucky my finger was all that was hurt, because the bird was panicked. We subdued it, took it into the clinic area, and were able to give it a sedative so it wouldn't hurt itself further while waiting for the vet to come and remove the hook from its wing.

At the same job, I went into a mew with a pair of ferruginous hawks who had eggs in their nest. One of the hawks landed on my shoulder/back and managed to scratch me through my shirt with its talons. It was just a warning and it wasn't really bad--more like getting a cat scratch when it could have done much worse. I decided I wasn't willing to go in that mew after that for what they paid me (I was a volunteer).

 

[hopemax]

Just my cat. I have two. Occasionally, I take them in the backyard. The young one loves it, but I don't trust him, so he's on a harness and leash. The old one is so slow, I don't have to worry about leashing him. But, one afternoon he wandered a little farther than I would like, so I went and picked him up. To express his displeasure, he hissed at me. The young one flew himself at my leg. So then I'm trying to wrangle the two cats back to the house, meanwhile my leg is dripping blood. We get inside and they wander off like nothing has happened. We had sensed that the younger one considered himself the older one's protector, but didn't have real proof until that happened.

However, there was one time I feared a dog attack. I went out for a walk, and there was an unleashed dog, and he just started barking and came out into the middle of the street. The look he had, I had never seen in a dog. I stopped and he continued growling and barking, I was going to start stepping backward, since I wasn't that far from my house. I was not going to turn my back on him. But a woman in an SUV came by, saw the dog, and he wouldn't move for her car until she got right behind him. She rolled down the window and asked if I wanted a ride, and normally I would shrug it off, but I got in the car. She said she never saw anything like the way he was acting either.

 

[robinb]

I was bitten by a German shepherd when I was a kid. I had to have rabies shots because it was the 60’s.

My daughter was bitten by her pet rat. The rat was fighting with her cage mate and my teen DD stuck her hand in to break it up. She still has a scar 8 years later ... and pet rats.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

When I was young we had a chihuahua. I was attacked numerous times. Granted most of those attacks were provoked. For some reason I found bothering the dog to be a form of entertainment.

 

[barkley]

a pit bull.

i was walking down a sidewalk when the dog came nonchalantly walking out of a yard a few houses down/across the street from where i was. i paid it no attention and kept walking. when it got within a couple of feet of me, without a sound it just jumped up and lunged at me. i threw my right arm up and instead of latching onto my throat it latched onto my right upper arm, gagged, let go and ran off.

animal control said the likely reason it didn't fully latch on was b/c of the material my long sleeve shirt was made of, also said the only thing that saved my throat was throwing my arm up.

not a fan of dogs so much anymore.

 

[Hikergirl]

Never attacked but I was bluff charged by a yearling bear once.

 

[BrianL]

I was bitten by our next-door-neighbor’s german shepherd when I was around 7. I had to have six stitches in the back of my thigh.

I have been bitten by a German Shepherd as well. Just on my finger and not that bad, but still. That was a poorly trained dog.

 

[Meglen]

Was a stupid child trying to feed ducks puffy cheetos.. and got my finger bit

 

[NFLDERS]

A nesting bird, but who hasn't?

A large goose while walking to elementary school, having taken a shortcut through a hobby farm like lot. Lesson learned!

 

[mrodgers]

The exwife, but nothing 4 legged unless you consider the pets wanting to play attacking.

 

[Shellsbutt]

Yep, just by my cats though. I'm a crazy cat lady, have 3 right now. Shadow, who has since gone over the rainbow bridge, was the culprit this time. So this was about ten years ago, shortly after we had moved into our current house. He was perched up in the windowsill, looking outside like most cats like to do. His tail was flicking back and forth furiously, probably spotted a bird. He managed to get his tail tangled up with the blind cord and attempted to jump down to the ground-he ended up hanging upside down by his tail. Of course I immediately rush over and try to free him when he latches onto my leg for dear life. He sunk his claws into my calf and starting furiously biting the heck out of my leg. I screamed for my son who rushed out and got the scissors to cut the cord.

So Shadow took off and I just stood there with blood pooling around my feet in a state of shock. I assessed the damage, lots of puncture marks and several nasty bites. I should've gone to urgent care but thought I'd be okay. I was in such pain that night, had to throw away my sheets because of the amount of gunk oozing out of me. I woke up with my right leg swollen and made an appointment to see the NP that day. I was prescribed antibiotics. I had to make use of my friend's walker because I couldn't walk properly for a few days. The worst thing was this happened two days before school started for my DS who was still in elementary school, so I still walked him to school. I got lots of comments because I couldn't bear to wear pants, plus it was August and 100 degrees. It looked horrible so people would ask about it and then I'd tell them I was attacked by my cat. I got plenty of laughs, that's for sure. Now I can't even tell where the bite marks were on my leg.

I'm not going to talk about the time I tried to take a bath with my cat when I was ten-but my family brings it up at every holiday get together

 

[HiStitch626]

I was bit by a German Shepherd as a young teen, and as he chased me, I guess that would be an attack.

I have been bit by a shark and a seal, but both of those were partly my fault, so no attack!

 

[easyas123]

Kicked/bit by horses and chased by a goose/rooster/ pigs as a kid (lived on a farm, it was normal!), bit by my in-laws dog about 20 years ago...it came up behind me and nipped at my calf and knocked me down didn't know it was coming.
Jellyfish stings - but not what I'd call an attack.

Does the deer that jump out in front of you as you are driving down the road count?!?!