A 4-month-old in Philadelphia had to go through surgery this week after she was viciously attacked by a raccoon inside her home.
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According to CBS Philadelphia, Journi Black has a long road to recovery ahead of her after she was dragged from her bed by the animal.
“It’s just ridiculous,” Samuel Black, Journi’s father, told the news station. “My daughter could have lost her life.”
Animal control was called and set a trap for the raccoon so that there will not be a repeat incident. However, Journi will take at least a year to fully recover from the horrifying ordeal.
“My daughter was laying on the bed sleeping and I went to take my son to the bathroom. We heard a sound upstairs and we see a raccoon run down the steps,” Ashley Rodgers, Journi’s mom, recalled. “When I finally got to her, she was laying on the floor, so it had dragged her off the bed, across the room, and she was bleeding and crying and her whole face was red.”
Rodgers had only recently moved into the home with her daughter and 6-year-old son, Jordan. Other tenants reportedly live in the home; however, a spokesperson for the city’s Licenses and Inspections Department told the news station that the homeowner, who bought the property in May, does not have a rental license and so, if he is indeed renting rooms, is doing so illegally.
“It needs to be shut down. Everybody needs to leave out of there,” Rodgers said.
Rodgers said she contacted the landlord after spotting the first raccoon earlier in the evening—something that neighbors say is particularly common, especially in the trash area.
Rodgers says that the landlord told her that he chased the raccoon out, but after the baby was attacked, the landlord rushed her to the hospital. The family says they intend to pursue legal action.
“It is his responsibility. There’s no reason an animal should have gotten into the house with minors,” Black said.
Read more at CBS Philadelphia.
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