A 13-year-old Maryland boy required emergency surgery after a rabid beaver attacked him while he was swimming at Cunningham Falls State Park in Frederick County, his family says.
The teen, identified by WUSA 9 as Dominick Cebula, was swimming in a designated area of Hunting Creek Lake on July 26, looking at fish underwater, when the beaver struck. His family says the attack was unprovoked and happened in front of his mother and younger brother, who watched from shore.
“This 4-foot-long beaver (not a cute little cuddly beaver — this thing was as big as his 8-year-old brother) came out of nowhere from the deep of the lake, beelined straight toward D, and began biting and attacking him,” the boy’s aunt, Leigh Cebula, said in the family’s GoFundMe post. “He did not provoke it, poke it, or mess with it in any way. This was completely unprovoked.”
Dominick’s father, Jeff Cebula, told WUSA 9 the animal locked onto the boy’s chest and would not let go. “He grabbed its head and a leg, and he tried to get it off of him,” Jeff said. “At that point, he kind of felt that it was locked onto him. And then it started shaking its head, kind of like a dog would do.”
Dominick eventually pried the beaver off and tried to back away with his hands raised, according to his father, but the animal lunged again and bit his right hand. He fought it off a second time before getting clear of the water.
He was airlifted to Johns Hopkins Hospital, where paramedics initially feared a punctured lung. “It was so traumatic. He was lifeflighted to Johns Hopkins because the paramedics were worried his lung was punctured. Luckily it wasn’t,” his mother, Alishia Cebula, told Fox News Digital.
Doctors began rabies post-exposure treatment immediately. Dominick underwent surgery on Sept. 4 to repair a severed nerve in his finger and is now recovering.
“He is doing much better,” Alishia said. “He had a lot of appointments, especially with the rabies vaccines he had to get. Thank God for the vaccine. Luckily, we’re getting to the end of this traumatic event.”
Leigh Cebula said the family had swum in that same area for years and had never before seen beavers there.
Park Closed Swimming Area After Three Attacks
The beaver involved in the attack on Dominick was later euthanized and tested positive for rabies. Swimming access to Hunting Creek Lake was closed following the incident.
The Cebula family’s attack was the first of three rabid beaver encounters that led officials to shut down swimming at Cunningham Falls State Park. On Aug. 5, a 19-year-old fisherman was bitten in the ankle by a beaver at the same park. Less than three weeks later, a 10-year-old girl at nearby Seneca Creek State Park was attacked by a beaver while wading with an organized group.
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