Officials at the Arizona Game and Fish Department say a Yavapai County man was attacked by a rabid bobcat on Monday. Rather than panic, he strangled it with his bare hands.

The man's name is not being released because of privacy laws, but AGFD officials say the attack happened in the front yard of his Crown King Trail home, about 12 miles north of Lake Pleasant.

"This was particularly unusual because the gentleman killed the animal with his bare hands, and that was very advantageous because the animal wasn't out potentially exposing other people to rabies," Randy Babb, spokesman for the AGFD, tells CBS 5 (KPHO).

Arizona is seeing record numbers of rabid animals in 2009, with 244 that have tested positive for the disease. That is an increase from the 176 cases reported last year, which was the previous record.

However, Arizonans prove to not be backing down to these rabid rascals.

Just last month, a Chino Valley woman was attacked by a fox while she was jogging. The fox bit down on her arm and wouldn't let go, so the woman kept jogging for about a mile and a half, with the fox clamped into her flesh.

She finally reached her car with the fox still attached, where she managed to pry the thing off and put it in the trunk. It was later determined that the maniac fox had rabies.

Officials at the AGFD, however, don't recommend taking matters into your own, um, hands if you can help it. They say that if confronted by an animal that has allowed you to get close to it, or has no problem with getting close to you, get the hell away as fast as you can because it may be rabid.