73-year-old Mark Pieraccini from Greenfield, Massachusetts was swimming in a pond near Hatfield when he was attacked by an aggressive beaver.
The beaver is North America’s largest rodent and this one viciously clawed, scratched, and bit into Mark for five straight minutes while he was trying to get away.
He said he felt like he was about to die if he had to battle the beaver any longer than he did. Mark had to swim 120 feet to shore while fighting the beaver and it was exhausting.
He said the beaver ambushed him as he was swimming in the deepest part of the Greenfield pond where Mark could not touch the bottom.
The beaver would bite and scratch Mark’s arms, legs, back, and buttocks as he was swimming making it to where he kept having to go under to the water to fight it off of him.
“At some point, I said to myself, ‘If I stop and fight him one more time, I’m going to drown,” Mass Live reported him saying.
After Mark made it out of the pond, he immediately went to the hospital where he had his wounds tended to by a doctor and was treated for rabies.
Massachusetts Division of Fisheries & Wildlife experts say that is rare that beavers attack, however, it has happened. Almost all cases of attacks were also when the beavers had rabies.
There are only 12 beaver attacks ever reported in the U.S.