Eyewitness: About that rabid fisher that bit 4 people at Hudson Pointe in Queensbury

By Ben Westcott, Chronicle Staff Writer

Queensbury resident Dan Stusnick says he was at the town’s Hudson Pointe Nature Preserve on Wednesday afternoon, Nov. 29, to witness a rabid fisher fight through a bullet wound to attack the Department of Environmental Conservation Police Officer [ECO] who fired it.

The fisher was eventually killed by a second gunshot from responding law enforcement, but not before it had attacked four people at the Preserve, according to Warren County, which said it’s the only positive rabies case it’s had this year.

Mr. Stusnick and his golden retriever are frequent users of the preserve.

“I walk there every day,” he told The Chronicle. “I never see anything more than chipmunks there.” Not on this day, as an ordinary stroll for Mr. Stusnick and his dog quickly turned chaotic.

He said he was on the tail-end of his daily walk, which started around 12:30 p.m., when he ran into two men who told him they had just seen a ranger (the men incorrectly gave the ECO this label) parked at the preserve’s entrance who told them that there was a rabid mink loose in the preserve that bit somebody.

Upon walking a bit further, Mr. Stusnick saw the creature himself, which DEC would later identify as a fisher, about 100 yards from the preserve’s entrance.

“I was about 20 feet away from it,” he said. “It was hiding right next to a big oak tree on the orange trail along the river there. Luckily I had my dog on the leash, and I just quickly moved away from it. But I could see that it was foaming at the mouth and it didn’t look right.”

So Mr. Stusnick approached the ECO and told him he knew the fisher’s whereabouts. The ECO grabbed a .22 rifle and followed Mr. Stusnick to the spot.

“He got within 15 feet of it or so and took a shot, and he hit it, but the fisher literally jumped up at him and attacked him,” Mr. Stusnick recalled.

Mr. Stusnick said he watched as the ECO turned to run from the advancing animal, but tripped on a root, face planting on the ground.

“He was out cold,” Mr. Stusnick said. “The fisher was on him. There was nothing I could do. I was there with my dog about 40 feet away. I couldn’t tell whether the fisher was biting or not, but I couldn’t get (the ECO’s) attention. He was out for about three to five minutes.”

Mr. Stusnick described what it was like watching the attack. “It looked like a scene out of Monty Python and the Holy Grail with the rabbit thing,” he said. “The thing just flew at him.”

Mr. Stusnick called 911, and while he was waiting for emergency personnel to arrive saw the fisher get up from atop the ECO’s chest and go back behind the tree where it was hiding before.

He said the Warren County Sheriff’s Office showed up within five minutes.

“By the time they got there, the (ECO) was just starting to sit up…He didn’t remember why he was there and he was kind of staggering.”

Mr. Stusnick said he led sheriff’s office personnel to the ECO and that they got him back to his truck. Then law enforcement went back to the scene of the attack.

“Apparently they finished the fisher off,” Mr. Stusnick said. “It was still in the same spot.”

NYS DEC Public Information Officer Jeff Wernick told The Chronicle on Friday, “The ECO was transported to the hospital for evaluation and as a precaution underwent rabies exposure protocol. The ECO is expected to return to work tomorrow.”

Warren County said that among the three park walkers and one ECO that were attacked by the fisher, no serious injuries were reported, but all four individuals would undergo rabies treatments.

The ECO was not identified and declined to be interviewed.

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