Rabid raccoon attacks 4-year-old Covington boy

COVINGTON, Ga. - A young Covington boy must now undergo rabies treatments after a rabid raccoon attacked him on his family’s front porch and then ran inside at other family members.

Four-year-old Chandler Mahaffey is recovering from last Thursday's violent attack at his family's Covington home near Georgia Highway 162 and Parr Farm Road.

"My son went outside on the porch. And as he went to walk on the front porch, he started screaming and hollering," Chandler’s mother, Amber Mahaffey, told FOX 5’s Deidra Dukes. "I peeked around the corner and there was a raccoon holding onto him on his hand."

When the attack took place, Chandler’s two siblings and parents were inside the home. Soon, the animal ran inside the home.

"They got into a tussle on the floor and he was trying to fight the raccoon off of him, and as he tried to fight him off, the raccoon kept holding on to him and biting repeatedly," Mahaffey said, "So we kicked the raccoon off of him. It ran around the house trying to attack everyone."                  

Mahaffey shot and killed the animal and then rushed little Chandler to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston for treatment. The boy got his first rabies shots on Friday. 

Newton County Animal Control officials confirm this is the first positive rabies case in the county this year.

Newton County residents familiar with these woods and the wildlife around these parts say they will be on watch for animals displaying strange behavior following the attack.

"It makes you nervous a little bit but I've lived in the woods all my life," neighbor Joseph Scroughams said. “I’ve been wanting to get with the neighbors take some shotguns to walk through the woods, three or four of us together."