Posted on 09/26/2009 8:16:54 PM PDT by Freedom'sWorthIt
A 13-year-old boy was attacked by a fox on Monday afternoon in a wooded area in the Twin Creeks community in Wake Forest.
Jesse Frutiger said he was in the woods when the animal approached him and immediately started hissing. He said he threw a rock at the fox and that’s when the animal lunged at him
(Excerpt) Read more at wral.com ...
Oh, I saw Old Yeller too! and have been afraid of Rabies ever since!
“Several posters blame the teen for irritating the fox...so that it lunged at him and bit him.”
People who project human qualities into a wild animal are plain nutz. We have a lot of them now. Idiots.
No wild animal would approach a human being unless there was something wrong about to happen. Too bad the kid was attacked. At least he had the good sense to know something bad was about to happen and he tried to defend himself.
Totally agreed. We do have a lot of people in this country who value an animal almost as “holy” (sort of like sacred cows are viewed in India)....
Yep, I think the teenager showed remarkable fastthinking to throw a rock at a fax that was obviously ready to attack.
Thank God for that.
I wish them both the best of luck.
I’ve seen foxes, yes, but *always* darting furtively across roads or fields at dusk.
Once, I saw one crossing my lane up near the catfish pond as we were pulling in but it was gone so quickly, I couldn’t tell if it was a red or gray.
They usually avoid people like the plague and I’ve never had one do anything but haul tail away from me or my vehicle as fast as possible.
I see fox *tracks* all the time so I know there’s lots of them out there in the woods.
I’ve seen over a score of foxes in the wild, and the only ones that worry me are the ones in my suburban neighborhood that have lost the fear of humans and have established regular routes through the neighborhood. Pretty much every night around 11-12pm, a pair, one about 20 minutes after the other, come through the neighor’s backyard and go up the street. The dogs get pretty excited behind our fence, but I’m more worried about worms and other canine diseases.
I was gonna go after Sean.
I am in Decatur,GA. We had a pair of red foxes in our neighborhood early every morning for weeks. Beautiful sight for this California Girl to see until one of them became roadkill.. very sad sight.What amazed me was no one cleaned it up for days! I miss civilization!
Rabies PEP (post exposure prophylaxis) definitely appropriate for the bite.
Also, if the dog tangled with the fox, anyone touching the dog should consult a doctor as well. There’s probably fox saliva on the dogs coat; it’s possible for the virus to enter any open area of skin or come in contact with the mucous membranes (mouth, inside nose, eyes...).
There was a shortage of rabies vaccine, but that’s now apparently resolved: http://www.cdc.gov/RABIES/news/RabVaxupdate.html
Always blaming Fox for the attacks. The MSM is always the one who is attacking people. /s
Full of liberals, though. If you're from California you should feel right at home.
Hey Neighbor! Decatur did take me by surprise! You see I grew up in the same Republican, Conservative Californian city all my life!
LOL - so true! /s also
LOL - after putting in that headline I wanted to add some clarification so it wouldn’t be taken that way here....but, um, I know I am not supposed to change headlines...so....didn’t. LOL
Well, as I said above, people where I work have seen 2 foxes near our office building....but I have not yet seen them. I have seen many deer near the office.
I would not mind seeing the foxes. But I would mind encountering one face to face hissing at me!
thanks for that info. Well, the video reports that the mother saw the dog fighting with the fox earlier in the day and that the dog got rabies treatment but didn’t talk about the rest of her family getting it. (The teenager did, of course).
We have had reports of rabid foxes in Wake County, NC, several times this year. The video gives one report of a homeowner in a suburb being attacked by one near his home.
Also, in the comments, one guy says this is why he is not out jogging at 5:15 in the morning any more - not safe from these critters that now seem to have had a population explosion here.
Again, been in this area a lot of years and only recently have we heard of foxes (much less rabid foxes), or coyotes (one of the people who added comments mentions the coyote they had seen) being seen on so many occasions.
Racoons - yes. Possum - yes.
Foxes and coyotes - no. Not until recently.
Your welcome.
At work 3 weeks ago, I was walking an asphalt path in the woods leading to a parking lot to get my car, and saw a red fox in broad daylight. Fortunately, nothing happened, but my first thought was that it may be rabid.
We had an incident in our area (eastern PA) where an elderly woman was out hanging clothes, and a fox attacked her out of nowhere. Her husband came out and beat it with a frying pan, and it turns out the fox was rabid.
We also had a case in our clinic (I’m a RN) where a 6 year old girl was bit by a wild “barn cat”, and it turned out the cat had rabies. The girl got the shots right away, and did fine.
The problem with rabies is that there is no cure. If the “shots” aren’t given soon after the exposure, rabies infection can occur. There is a case in the midwest of successful treatment, but the teen-aged girl still has neurologic deficits.
You’re wise to be cautious.
Most definitely.
Good job alerting folks.
I saw a silver fox in my backyard about a month ago. No one was outside and it seemed to be just passing through. But since I live in the middle of town, and not out in the forest, I thought it was very strange.
So you too?
Is the fox population just exploding?
Not sure if it is here; this is the first I’ve seen in years.
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