SAN DIEGO (CBS 8) - An injured bobcat lying in the middle of a road bit a woman who was trying to help it Monday night.
The woman was reportedly heading north on El Camino Real when she spotted the injured bobcat in the middle of the roadway. She pulled over and tried to pick up the bobcat to move it out of the road, but instead her plan backfired when the bobcat bit her.
"Bobcat bites can be very bad. They also have very big sharp claws. Just getting away with what probably was a minor bite, that person was very lucky," said Daniel Desousa, County of San Diego Department of Animal Services.
The woman called police and was treated on the scene by medics. The female bobcat did not fair so well.
"The [bobcat] injures were so severe that the cat basically tried to claw its way to the side of the road. It's pelvis and back legs were fractured so severely that the only option we had was to euthanize the cat," said Desousa.
To better tell the difference between a regular house cat and a bobcat, experts said to look for the differences in the face, tail and sheer size.
"Bobcats have much more distinctive faces. They have a very short and stubby tail. They don't really look like a domestic house cat," said Desousa.
Also, bobcats tend to have a flatter, rounder face with some spots and tend to be more tan in color blending in with their background.
Animal control reached out Tuesday to the woman bitten, but she did not return the calls.