Woodstock family fends off raccoon attack on dog in backyard

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) — A Woodstock family is still in shock after a raccoon attacked their dog in their backyard.

Sean Yanes said he took his dog, Ro Ro, outside on Sunday evening and spotted the raccoon, initially thinking nothing of it.

“So I start filming it,” he said. “Oh, a raccoon ... show the neighbor’s kids.”

Seconds later, the raccoon lunged at Ro Ro, clinging to her tail. Yanes said the leash slipped from his hand, and the raccoon dragged Ro Ro across the yard. Wearing house slippers, Yanes fell while trying to fight the animal off.

“Kick, slip, I roll down there ... get a stick, come back and start smacking it with the stick,” he said. “I broke the stick across its back.”

His wife then ran outside to help, and Yanes managed to get the raccoon in a headlock until it released Ro Ro’s tail.

“Once we got to flat ground, then it was on,” he said. “Then I wasn’t falling anymore and I wore it out.”

Both Ro Ro and her owners are now okay after visits to the vet and doctor.

“I didn’t know what it was at the time,” Ashley Yanes said. “I just knew we had to get them apart from each other.”

Looking back, the family said it could have been far worse.

“We’re constantly looking to see if we see it ... our neighbor has a one-and-a-half-year-old,” Yanes said. “Again, the situation could have been so much worse than it was.”