Man and wild have been encroaching on unspoken territories since ancient times, with no set territory mapped. Man-animal conflicts are increasing at alarming rates around suburban residential areas. Recent thorough environmental initiatives to protect wildlife have innumerable benefits, but on the flip side, they have given rise to unwanted animal attacks on human habitation.
People reported Georgia authorities saying that an ‘aggressive’ bobcat attacked 2 children and 2 dogs on Sunday. The Oglethorpe County Fire and Rescue Department said on Facebook (via People) that a bobcat attacked the children around 6:30 p.m. local time Friday in the area of Melton and Williams McCurley roads in Winterville.
Department spokesperson Cody Gibbs told PEOPLE in a statement on Monday that the two kids who were attacked were a boy and a girl, with the youngest one being only 3. The respected department told People that they had notified the Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Public Health, the Oglethorpe County Sheriff’s Office, and the Oglethorpe County EMS regarding the attack.
The department also said that the attacks happened 15 minutes after each other on the boy and the girl on Sunday. USA Today reports via People that the boy and the girl were playing outside their homes when the incident took place. Assuming that the bobcat was rabid, the two kids were taken to local hospitals with no life-threatening situations and treated. Authorities found out about the attack on the boy while they were treating the girl, who suffered a single bite and some scratches. The details of the attack on the boy were not immediately made clear to the authorities.
The attack on the kids took place a day after the reported attack on two dogs at the same place. Gibbs added (via People), “We suspect it’s the same animal that attacked all of them,” he added, noting that it’s a “definitely strange set of circumstances.”
The authorities warned the public about the attacks via People and asked them to stay alert and follow protocol even though no other attacks have been reported since. The Oglethorpe County Fire & Rescue Department issued the following in their warning statement, “If you live in that area, we ask you to be mindful of your surroundings and to please keep a close eye on your children when they are outside.”
The string of wild attack news that has made headlines over the past few weeks is alarming and should be a wake-up call for authorities to instill and address better protection implementation on forest-inhabitation borders and should conduct awareness campaigns on wildlife safety to the localities so that another deadly attack can be avoided.