Congressman says he was the victim of an 'unprovoked' attack by a fox outside the Capitol

• Democratic Rep. Ami Bera of California says he was attacked by a rogue fox outside the US Capitol.
• Bera got 7 shots out of an abundance of caution. "Rabies is not something you wanna fool around with," he said.

Democratic Rep. Ami Bera of California said on Tuesday that he was the victim of an "unprovoked" attack by a fox outside of the US Capitol on Monday evening.

Bera said the attack occurred in the park area just north of the Capitol by Russell Senate Office Building,

"I was just walking, as I often would, over by that park," the congressman explained to Insider and a group of other reporters. "I felt something lunge — totally unprovoked — at the back of my leg."

Bera added that it "felt like a small dog" had attacked.

"I don't know if it actually penetrated my skin or not, but you can see the bite marks in the back of my pants," he said.

Bera said that despite the lack of clarity on whether the wild animal had managed to break his skin, the Attending Physician's office recommended that he undergo medical treatment for the bite out of an abundance of caution.

"Rabies is not something you wanna fool around with," Bera said.

Bera described receiving 7 different shots at Walter Reed Medical Center, including several doses of immunoglobulin to treat the potential infection, followed by a tetanus shot and starting the rabies vaccination series.

"It's five shots of immunoglobulin," he explained. "So, two around the ankle — where maybe it grazed me — one in the thigh, one on both buttocks, tetanus shot in the shoulder, rabies shot in the right arm."

Bera said he was sore Monday night, but "took some ibuprofen before I went to bed and I was fine this morning."

"It's a series of four shots," he said of the rabies vaccine, explaining that his next three shots would come "on day three, on day seven, on day 14."

Capitol Police later captured the critter dubbed by Twitter users as the "Senate fox."

Relocation plans for the fox remained unclear as of Tuesday afternoon.

"It's important to, again, take wild animal bites, or potential bites, seriously," Bera added.

Before the Senate fox ran around Capitol Hill, the most recent incident involving a wild animal in the nation's capital was back in October 2020, when a raccoon launched a pre-dawn attack against a CNN reporter outside the White House.