Javelinas being handfed attack 2 in northern Arizona homes
Mar 22, 2018, 7:36 AM | Updated: 9:50 am
(Screenshot)
(Screenshot)
PHOENIX — Arizona wildlife officials said private citizens should stop feeding roaming javelinas for the safety of themselves and the animals.
Two people were bitten by javelinas in separate attacks near Sedona in February while they were giving food to the animals by hand.
“Wildlife feeding frequently creates dangerous situations for both wildlife and people, often setting the stage for attacks,” Scott Poppenberger, a supervisor with Arizona Game and Fish Department said in a Wednesday press release.
Officials said a 79-year-old woman was bitten on the leg multiple times Feb. 5 at her home, after the herd of javelina she was feeding went after her dogs.
About three weeks later, an elderly man was feeding a herd in his Oak Creek Village backyard when one of them came at him when he didn’t supply food quickly enough.
He also was bitten on the leg and has been undergoing a series of rabies shots.
Department officials had to put down the animals.
A javelina in the Sedona area tested positive for rabies about eight months ago.
The more wild animals are fed by humans, the less afraid they become of people, even becoming dependent on them for food instead of their natural sources, Game and Fish said.
Earlier this year, javelinas charged and bit a woman near Tucson who was walking her dog on the street at night.
The dog was also attacked.
“Javelina react instinctively to dogs, they think that dogs are coyotes,” Game and Fish spokesman Mark Hart told KVOA-TV in January.
“If you see one when you’re walking your dog turn around and go the other way immediately.”
