Residents of Nottinghamshire, England, are being terrorized by two raccoon dogs who escaped their enclosures.
Residents of Nottinghamshire, England, are being terrorized by two raccoon dogs who escaped their enclosures.
The two dogs went missing from an enclosure Tuesday morning around 6 a.m., according to Nottinghamshire Police, and have been wreaking havoc for the citizens of the quaint English town.
Officers were called to a home after residents were reportedly in a two-hour-long standoff with one of the animals.
Mandy Marsh, 53, and her husband, 54-year-old Dale, were awoken in the early morning hours Tuesday by a "blood-curdling scream." As Dale rushed to see what was happening outside his home, his wife said, he spotted the creature trying to attack their pony and goat, according to SWNS.
“We were laid in bed at about 4 a.m. and I heard such a terrifying noise like I had never heard before. It was screaming,” Mandy told SWNS. “My husband went out and opened the door and the dog shot out. The dog was barking like mad and my husband went out after her. He came back and he said to me, 'You are going to have to come and see this, there is something in the field attacking the pony and I have absolutely no idea what it is.’”
She said that the pony was trying to protect the goat and it took them two hours to chase the wild animal off their property.
“We ran in with two great big pieces of wood to try and shoo the raccoon off and try and get it to go away so we could get the animals out of the field,” Mandy added. “We've never seen anything like it in our lives. It was scary. We didn't know what it was. It looked terrible."
Police confirmed two "potentially dangerous" raccoon dogs are "not domesticated." The department warned nearby residents to "be vigilant" and call to report sightings.
Residents of the town have reported sightings of the raccoon dogs since the incident on the Marsh's land. Mandy said police told her the creatures have attacked other animals in her area.
“The animals, which are described as being the same size of a medium- to small-sized dog, are potentially dangerous if approached as they are not domesticated," Nottinghamshire Police said in a statement.
The raccoon dog is native to Eastern Asia, according to Britannica. The dogs are now common in European countries after having been accidentally released or having escaped, according to England's RSPCA.
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