A rabid fox bit a visitor at Six Flags American in Bowie last weekend and officials are searching for anyone who have come in contact with the animal.

Prince George’s County Health Department said the fox bit a Six Flags visitor on June 26. The fox was captured on Tuesday and sent for rabies testing. The fox tested positive.

“Because rabies is a highly transmittable and treatable disease, the Health Department is taking all measures to locate any individuals that may have come in contact with this infected fox or any other infected animal,” Donald Shell, the county’s health officer, said in a news release.

Officials said the health department also needs to know of any animals that may have come in contact with the fox.

The first sign of rabies in animals include a change in behaviors, such as appearing unusually tame or extremely aggressive, staggering, convulsions, frothing at the mouth, gradual paralysis or change in voice. Officials say that if a pet has a wound of unknown origin a veterinarian should be contacted immediately.

Officials said any person or animal who may have come in contact with the fox should contact the county’s health department at 301-583-3750. After normal work hours, the weekend or holidays, call 240-508-5774.

via Post Now – Rabid fox bites visitor to Bowie Six Flags.

THE dad of a three-year-old attacked by a fox has described him as a “very brave little boy”. Relieved Sam Jermy said yesterday that son Jake was in “high spirits” after being bitten on the arm at a playgroup party. But the mum of twins Lola and Isabella Koupparis – who were mauled a fortnight ago – urged parents to start treating foxes as “a threat”.

Pauline, 41, said of the latest attack: “Pro-fox people will say he provoked it. However, it worries me that the fox was able to get close enough to the child.” Yesterday we revealed how Jake was attacked as he reached for a ball near a den under a playgroup’s building.

Staff had been aware that a family of foxes was living there for a year. But they did nothing about it as a local wildlife expert told them not to worry. The Dorothy Stringer Playgroup, in Brighton, East Sussex, was closed yesterday after pest controllers were called in following Saturday’s attack. Jake’s mum Jacqui and dad Sam, both 35, said they were relieved that the fox had not bitten or scratched the boy’s face and that his injuries were not likely to leave permanent scars. But they said they did want the fox to be destroyed. Jake is recovering at home. Sam said: “He’s doing well. It was a bit of a nightmare but he’s back on top form as if it never happened. “We feel it was not the fault of the fox or Jake but an unfortunate event.” A friend who was at the party said: “He’s doing OK but he’s got bite marks and lacerations to his arm.” The playgroup said: “We wish him a speedy recovery. We were aware of the foxes for some time. “The advice given by a local wildlife expert was that they did not pose a threat to people. “The nursery will remain closed until we’ve ensured the safety of our children and staff.” The incident came after nine-month-old Isabella and Lola were attacked as they slept in their cots by a fox that crept into their home in Hackney, East London, through an open patio door. The council then laid traps in the garden and caught six foxes – which were destroyed. They have now been removed.

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The fox attack in England sensationalist reporting is getting to be a bit much. Other than the toddlers, these are very small encounters.

A toddler was recovering at home today after being attacked by fox at a playgroup in Brighton.

The three-year-old boy was either bitten or scratched on the arm as he played outside at a party at Dorothy Stringer pre-school playgroup in Brighton, East Sussex, on Saturday afternoon.

It is believed the child, who has not been named, stroked the tail of an animal that was sticking out from under a temporary building, when it turned on him. The playgroup was closed today. In a statement it said: “We can confirm that a child suffered injuries after being attacked by a fox at an event on our premises at the weekend.”

It said foxes had existed in the area for sometime, but the playgroup had not taken action because wildlife experts had advised that they were not a danger to people.

An RSPCA inspector who attended the scene was unable to find the animal.

Relatives took the boy to the Royal Sussex county hospital in Brighton where he was treated and released, according to Sussex police. He is now recovering at home, the playgroup said.

Its statement added: “We have been in touch with Defra [Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs] and also with a local pest control company, which is due to visit this afternoon to give advice on the action we should take.”

An RSPCA spokeswoman said: “As far as we are aware it was a fox. People there told us they were aware of a fox who had made his den there and had been living there for a year or so.”

She added: “Attacks like this are extremely rare. Foxes will usually shy away from interaction with people. We offer our sincere condolences to the family concerned and we hope for a speedy recovery for the child.”

The spokeswoman explained that had a fox been found, it would not have been put down but taken away and re-released elsewhere. She had no information on the extent of the injuries.

A police spokeswoman said: “Police were called by South East Coast Ambulance Service at 12.30pm on Saturday 19 June after a report of a boy being bitten by a fox.”

She added: “The boy was taken to the Royal Sussex county hospital by family, where he was treated and released.”

A spokeswoman for South East Coast Ambulance Service said: “We were called to the scene but were then stood down. This would imply that the injuries were not that bad.”

Trevor Weeks, founder of the charity East Sussex Wildlife Rescue and Ambulance Service, called for a proportionate response to the attack.

He said: “It has been known for years by the educational authorities that foxes live under makeshift buildings at schools, so it should come as no surprise there was a fox present.

“The fox did not attack the child – it was defending itself. There is a significant difference. Any wild animal is going to turn round and bite if you grab its tail.”

The incident comes a fortnight after nine-month-old twins Isabella and Lola Koupparis were attacked after a fox entered their upstairs bedroom in Hackney, east London.

It is thought to have got in through a door on the ground floor of the three-storey house, which was left open because of the hot weather, while the children’s parents watched Britain’s Got Talent on television.

Both girls have since been discharged from hospital. The twins’ four-year-old brother, Max, who was also sleeping upstairs, was not hurt in the attack.

via Toddler released from hospital after Brighton fox attack | World news | guardian.co.uk.

A fox that attacked a Cottonwood woman Wednesday tested positive for rabies Thursday.

It was the first reported rabid wildlife attack in Yavapai County this year, after several odd incidents in 2009.

The year 2009 saw a record 280 confirmed reports of rabid wildlife. About half were skunks, 69 were bats and 51 were foxes. Fifteen cases occurred in Yavapai County, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.

Last year's record was a 59 percent increase from the previous record of 176 set in 2008. So far this year, the state has recorded 61 rabies cases in wild animals, two-thirds were skunks.

While state agencies don't track rabid wildlife attacks, at least three occurred last year in the Prescott and Cottonwood areas.

In the latest incident Wednesday evening, a woman who lives along North Willard Streeet in Cottonwood said a fox attacked her and bit her hand.

She had just caught a javelina in a trap in her yard and when it was loaded into her vehicle, she went back into her yard.

Suddenly a grey fox jumped over a retaining wall and bit her hand, then ran away. She suffered minor lacerations and is undergoing rabies shots.

The woman's husband said the fox had been in the area for some time and thought it lived in an abandoned house next door. However, it had just started acting strangely in the last few days.

When the report came into the police, they suspected the fox was rabid because they had received two earlier reports of a fox trying unsuccessfully to attack people in the area, including a UPS driver who fended off the fox with a clipboard, according to state wildlife officials and Cottonwood Sgt. Gareth Braxton.

An officer spotted the fox in the vacant home next to the victim's home, Cottonwood police said. When the fox leaped onto the retaining wall about 15 feet away from the officers, one of the officers shot and killed it.

Arizona Game and Fish Department spokesperson Zen Mocarski warned people to stay away from wild animals and watch for unusual behavior indicative of rabies.

Signs of rabies include lethargy, lack of fear of humans, unusual aggression and activity during the heat of the day, especially from nocturnal animals.

The last reported rabid wildlife attack in Yavapai County took place in April 2009 when a rabid bobcat attacked a family walking along Lynx Creek in Prescott Valley.

In March 2009, a rabid bobcat attacked patrons in a Cottonwood bar, and the saloon's video camera captured the havoc.

And in February 2009 and November 2008, two separate rabid foxes attacked hikers at the Granite Mountain Recreation Area just west of Prescott.

via Rabid fox attacks Cottonwood woman – The Prescott Daily Courier – Prescott, Arizona.

Walter Wilson of Atlanta said he is recovering nicely after he was bitten by a rabid fox outside of a Tyrone automotive shop in May. He is receiving his last series of shots as another person starts treatment following a recent fox attack that happened in a nearby city June 3.

Local officials urge residents to be mindful that certain areas in and around Fayette County contain an abundance of green space and woodland areas that naturally harbor several indigenous species of animals that potentially carry rabies.

The reminder comes at an especially critical time as Newnan officials confirm another case of rabies in their city. The incident marks the second case of rabies in Newnan, after the first case that occurred in the city last year.

City of Newnan Animal Warden Cyndi Hoffman said an employee of Active Pest Control was attacked by a fox near a dumpster located at the business at 100 Werz Industrial Boulevard.

The employee killed the fox and turned it over to the animal warden where it was sent to the lab to be tested for rabies that results determined positive.

The employee started rabies shots at the hospital on that day and will continue the series.

Wilson said this can be an unwelcomed situation for anyone. However, he is fortunate the circumstances he faced left him with a punctured arm, opposed to a more life-threatening injury.

He is one of two victims in a fox attack that happened late May. Wilson was walking between two buildings near Walter's Auto in Tyrone, when he encountered a fox that jumped up and bit his arm.

Wilson and the unidentified victim of last month's case were immediately treated for their injuries and recovering well, according to officials. However, officials are urging everyone to use important tips to prevent the contraction of rabies.

The public is urged to avoid wildlife, vaccinate pets, avoid approaching any unfamiliar animals and secure trash in garbage cans with tight fitting lids. People can also reduce their chances of falling victim by feeding and watering pets inside of the home to avoid attracting wild animals.

via News, Classifieds, legal announcements, sports, advertising, Articles and information in Fayette, Coweta, South Atlanta, Fayetteville, Peachtree City, Newnan, Tyrone and Senoia, Georgia.

LONDON (June — The red fox has long divided public opinion in Britain. Many country dwellers view the animals as livestock-murdering vermin and enjoy hunting them down with packs of dogs. But a large section of the population has a deep respect for these canny critters — who have learned to thrive in Britain's towns and cities — as reflected by Roald Dahl's charming children's book, “Fantastic Mr. Fox.”

However, following an attack by one of the animals on 9-month-old twins in east London this weekend, foxes have lost many of their fans. According to Pauline Koupparis, the children's mother, a fox crept through an open door and into their house on Sunday evening. Koupparis, who had been watching TV with her husband, rushed upstairs when she heard the girls crying in the nursery.

“I went into the room and I saw some blood in Isabella's cot. I thought she'd had a nosebleed,” she told BBC radio. “I put on the light, I saw the fox and it wasn't even scared of me, it just looked me directly in the eye.” The siblings were rushed to hospital, where Isabella received treatment for injuries to her arm, and her sister Lola for facial wounds. A fox caught near the family home today was destroyed, although it's not known if it was the same animal that attacked the sisters.

Although the incident was highly unusual — fox attacks on humans are almost unknown in the U.K. — some media commentators have declared that authorities must now launch an all-out war on this red menace. Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Clive Aslet — editor-at-large of the pro-hunting magazine Country Life — claimed that the number of urban foxes has rocketed in recent years, making a cull urgently needed. Experts at the University of Bristol's Mammal Group disagree, saying that urban fox numbers are relatively stable at about 33,000. They argue that the foxes have simply become more visible and confident over the past decade, as the amount of tasty waste scraps left lying around city streets has increased.

Aslet went on to argue that animal control specialists wielding dart guns should be ordered to patrol “railway embankments” where foxes are known to lurk. He added that “Fantastic Mr. Fox” should also be banned in schools, as it gives children the wrong idea about these troublesome beasts.

The tabloid Daily Mail also berated “urban dwellers” who “adopt a soft-hearted attitude to these predators, who are foolishly seen as cute, cuddly and clever.” It cited pest controllers who claimed that foxes had been known to gobble up “cats, gerbils [and] chinchillas.”

Other animal experts, though, have called on the British public to get the recent, admittedly tragic, attack into perspective. In England alone, some 225,000 people a year receive medical treatment for dog bites. “But people aren't calling for all dogs in cities to be culled,” John Bryant told AOL News. Bryant runs the British Humane Wildlife Deterrence Association, which removes foxes and other critters from homes and businesses without killing them.

“I've never heard of an attack like this before in my 40 years of working with foxes,” says Bryant, who speculates that the attack on the girls was carried out by a confused 3- to 4-month-old cub. He thinks it might have been lured to the nursery by the smell of diapers, which urban foxes have learned to associate with food, as they're often found alongside edibles in household trash. “It was simply an unfortunate freak occurrence.”

Bryant now worries that pest control companies are using the incident to whip up fears over urban fox numbers and win new business. He also suspects that foxhunting supporters like Aslet are trying to capitalize on the attack, which is useful fuel for their campaign to reverse Parliament's 2004 ban on hunting with hounds.

The fox expert says that if Brits really want their animal neighbors to leave town, they need to do one thing: clean up their dirty habits. “We throw food out in the streets and leave it lying around in unprotected black sacks,” Bryant says. “Our waste disposal standards are so appalling, it's no wonder that we're surrounded by scavengers like foxes.”

via Fox Attack on British Babies Sparks Debate Over Fox Hunting, Pest Control – AOL News.

Pauline Koupparis said she found her nine-month-old daughters Lola and Isabella covered in blood with a fox still prowling in their nursery.

But John Bryant, an expert in urban wildlife, said attacks on humans by foxes were unheard of, and suggested the injuries were more likely to have been caused by a domestic pet.

“I’ve only ever heard of two [similar] cases in my 40 years dealing with foxes, one of which turned out eventually to be a German shepherd and the other a cat, so it’s not in my experience of fox behaviour,” he said.

Mr Bryant, an Animal Welfare Consultant at the British Humane Wildlife Deterrence Association, said if a fox was responsible for the attack it was likely to have been a cub.

“There are thousands of three month old teenage cubs now wandering around beginning to explore their parents’ territory,” he told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4.

“They would be on the prowl looking around and if there’s an open door, even a cat flap, they will walk into houses and walk round and mess on the bathroom floor and sometimes sleep on the bed if the people aren’t around.

“But I see no reason why a fox would do this, unless it jumped into a cot and then found itself with squirming children underneath it and couldn’t get out through the bars or something. I don’t know, but it just doesn’t make any sense to me.”

Terry Nutkins, the English naturalist and television presenter, also said a fox was highly unlikely to be responsible for the attack on the twins.

“They are carnivores and opportunist feeders, but they don't attack humans. I can't remember a single verified case of a fox attacking a human unprovoked,” he wrote in an online article.

Mr Nutkins agreed with Mr Bryant that, if a fox did attack the twins, it was probably a cub who panicked on finding itself trapped in their bedroom.

via Fox would not have attacked baby twins unprovoked, say wildlife experts – Telegraph.

Link

Columbia County, N.Y.–Columbia County Health Officials put out a warning after a fox attacked and bit a boy in Stockport on January the 23rd.

According to Columbia County Public Health Sanitarian Ed Coons, two eight-year-olds were playing in the woods when they came across a fox den. When the boys saw a fox they turned around and ran. The boy in the rear fell and the fox bit him in the leg deep enough to warrant post exposure rabies treatment; a series of 4 shots given over a 14 day period intra-muscularly in the upper arm. The shots used to be administered every day for a 21 day period into the abdominal muscles. The fox was not caught so officials could not be sure if it was rabid.

“Though you should not live your life in fear, be aware of your surroundings,” warns Coons. “Most of the wild terrestrial animals are nocturnal; feed at night, and the attack occurred at 9:00 a.m., so seeing them out in the day is cause for alarm at this time of the year.”

On January 25th, a dog was attacked by a raccoon in a residential neighborhood in Elizaville. The dog owner responded by trying to pull the raccoon off of the dog and was scratched during the scuffle. Another neighbor grabbed a rake and hit the raccoon killing it. The raccoon tested positive for rabies.  Without knowing if the man was scratched by the raccoon or the dog, the man needed to receive post rabies treatment, according to Coons. The dog was not up to date on it’s shots so it needed treatment and to be quarantined for 6 months.

“Having two incidents within a three day period is very rare,” says Coons, “this is breeding season.”

Coons describes another incident involving a rabid skunk: “There was an incident that occurred a few years back where a dog in kennel was attacked by a rabid skunk that actually climbed the 6 foot tall chain link fence to go after the dog.” News10 asked, “Was the skunk going after the dog?” “Yes…the animal was shedding the virus and seeking to bite to keep the virus going…once they become clinical they no longer eat or drink and just look to bite,” says Coons.

The 2010 Rabies Clinics are beginning in March and they are free to Columbia County residents, according to Coons, who offers this advice, “Keep you pet’s vaccinations current, especially since there free.”

Link

Fox attacks two hikers

By Doug Cook, The Daily Courier

Sunday, May 03, 2009

PRESCOTT – Craig Leicht and Paul Janowski were enjoying their regular stroll along the three-mile loop of Prescott National Forest Trails 347 and 341 when a fox took a deadly interest in them.

At 6:45 p.m. Thursday, the Prescott neighbors were ending an otherwise routine hike on a trail near Granite Mountain, a mile west of Prescott’s municipal boundary and little more than a mile away from their homes, when the male animal attacked them.

Thanks to a quick response, Leicht, who moved here from Texas in February, and Janowski fended off and killed what they think was a rabid fox close to the trails’ far junction toward the bottom of a ravine. Neither of the men suffered bites or injuries.

“The fox appeared dazed, although he didn’t have any froth in his mouth,” said Janowski, 70, on Friday. “It was really weird, in a way.”

An Arizona Game and Fish Department official hauled away the fox’s body Friday morning and its frozen head will go to a state medical lab for testing Monday in Phoenix to determine whether it had rabies.

“The popular belief is that rabies tends to be cyclical in nature, and it’s just running its course throughout that area,” Game and Fish public information officer Zen Mocarski said. “Your odds of a wild animal encounter for the number of people that are outside still remains very low.”

Thursday’s incident was only one in a series of human vs. wild animal clashes during the past several months in Yavapai County, including the tri-city area.

“I looked ahead and saw something crouching on the trail, and I thought it was a bobcat in a hunched-down, crouching position,” Leicht said Friday about the fox encounter. “It was probably about 100 feet ahead or maybe more, so I bent down and picked up a rock just to scare it. By the time I stood up, this thing was about five feet away from me.”

Leicht, an anesthesiologist at Yavapai Regional Medical Center who lives in the Hokegon neighborhood off Iron Springs Road, about a mile west of Williamson Valley Road toward the Granite Mountain Wilderness Area, said he and Janowski were walking toward the latter’s residence when the incident happened.

“I threw a 15- to 20-pound boulder at the fox and it bounced off his back,” Leicht said. “I thought that would have deterred him, but he got up, came back at me, grabbed my pants leg, and I finally kicked him with my boot. He kept getting up and tried to attack again.”

At that point, Leicht kicked the fox as hard as he could, flinging it into a tree. Leicht and Janowski subsequently ambushed the animal and stoned it to death.

“I was surprised he was so aggressive and that it would come at me at such a distance,” Leicht said. “It was growling the whole way it was charging us. Once I kicked it a couple times, it would whimper and growl.”

One of Leicht’s neighbors plans to erect a homemade sign at the trailhead warning hikers about the possibility of having an encounter with a rabid animal.

Leicht recommends hikers carry hiking sticks and wear boots and long, baggy pants in case something happens.

“We didn’t have sticks or anything,” said Janowski, adding that he might start packing a .22-caliber pistol for safety when walking the trail. “It was very scary. I’m going to be very observant.”