Bobcat attacks Mass. man in his garage

A rescued bobcat waits to be fed at The Wild Animal Sanctuary on Oct. 20, 2011 in Keenesburg, Colorado. / John Moore/Getty Images

BROOKFIELD, Mass. A man in Massachusetts says all he heard was a hiss before a bobcat pounced on him in his own garage, sinking its teeth into his face and its claws in his back.

"It was on me in a split second," Roger Mundell Jr. told the Boston Globe hours after the attack. "I have bite marks in my eyelid, up my forehead. It scratched my back. I was bleeding like crazy."

Mundell went into the garage in Brookfield on Sunday morning to fetch some tie-down straps for a friend when the animal attacked.

It then ran out of the garage and bit Mundell's 15-year-old nephew on the arms and back.

Mundell and his wife pinned the cat to the ground and shot it dead.

Mundell, his nephew and his wife, are being treated for rabies. His wife wasn't bitten, but got the animal's blood on her.

State Environmental Police took the bobcat to have it tested for rabies, which they think is likely given its unusual behavior.

"This is completely out of character for a bobcat, even to be in the garage in the first place," Tom French, assistant director for the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, told the Boston Globe. "It is completely consistent with an animal that may have rabies."

Mundell added to the Boston Globe that while bobcats are common around his home, he has never had a problem with them. French added that there might have been only one other bobcat attack in the state.

[ROLLTIDEFL]

It must have been an Democratic cat trying to suck these poor people dry-er

[micmac666]

Maybe we're encroaching. Ask the wild animals mentioned elsewhere in this site today: The polar bear, kangaroo, Colorado elk (he's dead,too). People suck.

[rwsmith29456]

Just the fact that two people were able to pin down a bobcat indicates that it was sick and disoriented.

[Andrew_K9]

That's so freakin crazy! I feel for the guy and his nephew. That's one scary incident. Hope that the cat didn't have rabies. At least the rabies shots now are not in the stomach. They're a series of four shots spaced apart that you get with the first one being given in the butt, and the rest in the shoulder with a regular needle.

[margroks]

Hannity huggers? Not so law abiding, just unable to think for themselves.

[cube4hire]

Another reason I never was a cat person.

[pamom2002]

Here is a question for all the gun haters in the world - when someone breaks into your home or attacks you, who do you call to protect you? The police? However, they have guns and you do not believe in guns. Isn't that hypocritical?

[margroks]

Nonsense. Police are trained in the use of firearms unlike the average citizen. Not to mention that the Constitution specifies that the right to keep and bear arms is due to the need of a well-regulated militia. In other words, if you're not a part of a militia (read: National guard, police, etc. here) it's questionable that you have a right to carry at all.

[hamiltongrad]

Why did they have to kill the poor cat ?

[1history]

To save the state from having to prosecute it for illegal entry.

[Woodworkerwaynew]

Because, in the heat of the moment, they didn't realize that YOU wanted to rehabilitate it ?

[CBSName]

I tell you, them cats are crazy in Massachusetts.