Rabid bobcat attacks 10-year-old boy in Banks County

A 10-year-old Banks County boy was recently the victim of an aggressive attack by a rabid bobcat, an extremely rare occurrence in Georgia.

Fourth-grader Easton Burchett and his father, Wes Burchett, are both undergoing rabies shots after state health officials confirmed Tuesday that the bobcat was rabid.

Rabies is an incurable disease that attacks the brain and most often occurs in wild animals, although unvaccinated domesticated dogs and cats often acquire the disease, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health.

The last time a rabid bobcat attacked someone in northeast Georgia was in 2018, when a Hart County woman was attacked less than a month after a Lavonia man was also attacked. The woman actually strangled the bobcat to death when it attacked her.

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The Burchett’s drama began on the evening of April 8, when the family drove their pickup across the street to check on their neighbor’s dog as they were away on vacation.

Easton volunteered to put the dog in the house, but Wes Burchett said he heard the dog “raising Cain” and he decided to get out with his son.

Easton was unlocking the house door “and this bobcat shoots out from under a Jeep in the carport and did a full-on attack,” the father recalled Wednesday.

“He started screaming and then I kicked it trying to get it off him and they both fell to the ground,” Burchett said, as he saw his son punching the animal in the head.

“I reached down and grabbed the cat behind its head and pulled it over my head and threw it into the front bumper of the Jeep,” Burchett said.

Burchett’s wife, Amy, exited and took Easton inside the truck.

“I didn’t know where the bobcat went. I walked to the back of the Jeep and looked down and there it was showing me its teeth,” ‘Burchett said.

“He had lunged at me when I shot and hit him,” said Burchett, who always carries a firearm. The bobcat, shot once through the head with a 9mm bullet, lay dead about a foot from its next intended victim.

Burchett, who is a hunter, said he recognized the animal was a bobcat when it attacked his son.

The bobcat, a native wildlife known for its bobbed tail, weighed 31.4 pounds, Burchett said. The Georgia Department of Natural Resources reports the average weight of a bobcat is from 18 to 25 pounds.

An ambulance arrived and Burchett said he heard the medic comment, "I was wrong.” The medic explained that they've "had people call about bobcat attacks, but it was just a domestic cat. This is a true bobcat attack.”

At the hospital, physicians stitched Easton’s wounds on his leg and foot, but also gave rabies shots.

Easton began screaming as the shot were administered to the wound sites.

“It was so bad my wife passed out in the hospital,” Burchett said. “I go today and start mine because I handled the cat. It didn’t bite or scratch me, but I did pick the cat up."

The Burchett did not get home until shortly before 6 a.m. Easter Sunday.

Even though they had called 911 and alerted county officials to the attack, no one responded to the scene to collect the bobcat, which was needed for the rabies test.

Burchett said he placed the body in garbage bags, then placed it in a freezer.

The Georgia DNR was not notified of the attack until Tuesday.

Georgia DNR wildlife biologist Emily Rushton said rabid bobcats are rare while the most common wild animal with a variant of rabies in Georgia is the racoon. Bobcats are also elusive and rarely seen by people, according to Rushton.

"Most calls we get are people who see them on their ring doorbells or security cameras. They are shocked they are in the area. They are so secretive that people don't know they are around," she said.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Health officials report bobcat that attacked Banks boy was rabid