MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. — Not all heroes wear capes — but sometimes they end up needing rabies shots.
A South Carolina man has received praise for racing to save his chihuahua, Roxie, from a coyote attack last week outside his Mount Pleasant home. The attack and Timothy Snipe’s response were caught by his security camera.
Snipe told WCBD in Charleston that he had just let Roxie out the morning of Jan. 12 when he heard her start barking.
“She started barking and I was, like, ‘What is she barking at?’” Snipe told the news station.
It was a coyote, poised for attack in the woods nearby. Instead of running toward Snipe and potential safety, Roxie ran toward the larger animal.
When she realized the animal was several times her size, however, Roxie headed back toward Snipe, the Post and Courier reported.
Snipe sprang into action. The security footage shows a bathrobe-clad Snipe stepping between Roxie and the coyote, which lost interest in the dog and launched itself at her owner.
“The coyote jumped on me and bit me on my leg,” Snipe said. “I wrestled it down. I choked him out.”
In the video, Snipe grabs the coyote by the tail and carries the subdued animal to a nearby dumpster, which he uses to contain the coyote until he can call for help. Roxie, who was uninjured, can be seen running around and barking.
“I knew I could’ve been all right, even if I would’ve gotten bit or gotten rabies or something,” Snipe told the news station. “But if she had gotten bit, it was over.”
The Post and Courier reported that Snipe shot the coyote and sought medical attention, which included a series of rabies shots. He also took the coyote to the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, where it was tested for rabies.
The rabies test was positive.
The DHEC said in a news release this week that the coyote is the first animal in Charleston County to test positive for rabies in 2024. It is the fifth to test positive statewide.
A Post and Courier photo of Roxie and her devoted dog dad shows the 5-year-old pup strutting around their yard in her new pink, spiked coyote-proof vest. Snipe said the protective vest will be routine now when Roxie goes outside.
He told WCBD that he has no regrets about stepping in to save her life.
“Once you get a pet, they’re automatically a part of the family,” he said. “This is my girl.”
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