Boy Scouts stone rabid beaver to death after it attacks troop leader in Pa. park

A Boy Scout counselor is recovering after a rabid beaver attacked him during a field trip to the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, according to a report from The Poughkeepsie Journal.

Assistant scoutmaster Normand Brousseau, 51, of New York state, was floating with a swim noodle in the Delaware River Aug. 2 when the beaver attached itself to his chest. He told the paper that after he pushed the animal away, it came back and bit him in the leg, butt, arm, hand and waist.

Boy Scout Nick Hedges, 16, reportedly grabbed Brousseau’s arm and pulled him to shore as Brousseau held the beaver’s bottom jaw. Once on dry land, Brousseau again tossed the animal away, but it returned and attacked the swim noodle. Scout members reportedly threw rocks at the beaver until it died.

Brousseau, who was carried across the river in a canoe, where a passerby called 911, has received more than 20 rabies shots after a doctor confirmed the animal suffered from the disease. He is expected to survive.