October 19, 2011
SYDNEY (AFP) - An Australian woman mauled by a kangaroo as she walked her dogs said Wednesday it was a miracle she survived the attack, in which the native animal clawed her head and body.
Janet Karson told The West Australian newspaper she was walking her three dogs in the bush near Manjimup south of the western city of Perth on Saturday when a kangaroo leapt out in front of her and one of her dogs gave chase.
When she caught up with her dog the kangaroo had hold of it, so she grabbed a stick to lever its claws off the dog.
"And then it reared up in front of me -- it was huge," she told the paper.
"All I can remember is its claws going to work on me and the smell of my own blood when my head fell on to its chest.
"I thought, 'That's it, I'm finished'."
Karson, who suffered cuts to her neck and back and needed more than 20 stitches to her battered ears, is not sure whether the dogs fought off the large marsupial or whether it "just hopped off".
"I honestly believe it's a miracle I'm alive," she added.
Kangaroos are found across Australia but attacks against people are rare.
In July police were forced to pepper-spray a giant red kangaroo after it bounded into an elderly woman's garden in outback Queensland as she was hanging out the washing and attacked her.
The giant red can grow up to two metres (more than six foot six inches) tall.
