A North Carolina man is undergoing rabies treatment after strangling a coyote to death because the animal attacked him. James Pulliam of Roxboro, North Carolina, was smoking outside his apartment when he heard the animal behind him.

"I felt something watching me...I just felt like he was hunting me or something," Pulliam told abc11.com.

When he saw the coyote come out of the nearby woods, he tried to scare it away by throwing rocks at it, but he tripped, and that’s when the wild canine attacked.

"He jumped on me, and I caught him in the air. He was biting me, and so when I threw him down and I'm trying to slide out of the way, he just kept coming," Pulliam said.

Pulliam says the coyote continued to attack him. "I had to rip my left hand out of his mouth, and when I got my left hand out, I just choked him all the way till the police got there.” Pulliam says he held the coyote down with his hands and his knee on the animal’s neck until police arrive and estimated 20 minutes later. By then, the coyote was dead and Pulliam was taken to a nearby hospital. He received rabies preventative treatment in case the animal carried the disease.