(This story by Chris Mays was published in the Brattleboro Reformer www.reformer.com on May 2, 2017.)
LONDONDERRY — After a 5-year-old boy was bitten by a fox on Saturday, the boy’s stepfather hit the animal with a shovel, killing it.
The boy had been the second bite victim that day. The two incidents caused the town clerk to notify the public about the dangerous situation.
“This is definitely an anomaly and first in my career,” Game Warden David Taddei said. “Usually it’s an isolated attack. It’s usually rare a person gets bit. A lot of times it’s a dog that gets bit.”
Taddei said he received a call at about 11 a.m. on Saturday regarding a fox charging at a resident. Once the resident was inside the home, the fox was scratching at the door.
By the time Taddei got there, the complainant was already gone. He said he looked around for about 10 minutes and talked to some neighbors then went about his day.
About three hours later, Taddei received another call. A woman was bitten by the fox.
“She’s all right,” Taddei said. “She’s getting rabies shots.”
Taddei said he looked for the fox for more than an hour and talked to several neighbors about the incident. He was hoping to put the fox down and have it tested.
Then the 5-year-old boy was bitten.
“He only suffered a scratch and he’s going to wait on rabies shots before the results come back from the fox being tested,” said Taddei.
The boy’s stepfather killed the fox by hitting the animal with a shovel at about 5 p.m., according to Taddei, who brought the fox to Grace Cottage Hospital in Townshend. The animal will be tested for rabies by Vermont State Public Health Veterinarian Robert Johnson in Colchester.
Taddei said the results are expected by Monday or Tuesday. The animal’s brain matter or brainstem tissue is tested to determine if it was rabid.
Rabies is an infectious viral disease that is nearly always fatal after the onset of clinical symptoms, according to the World Health Organization. In up to 99 percent of cases, domestic dogs have been responsible for transmitting the virus to humans. Post-bite vaccinations are estimated to prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths from the virus each year. More than 15 million people worldwide receive the vaccination.
Taddei advises people to stay away from wild animals. He considers the fox in Londonerry an anomaly because of the way the animal charged at the humans.
“That’s extremely rare,” he said. “It’s not normal.”
Taddei said he figured the fox would have left the area before he arrived in town since the drive took between 45 minutes and an hour.
“But it stayed within a half-mile radius, which is extremely unusual behavior for a fox,” Taddei said, noting that not having a direction in which the fox was moving made the animal difficult to find.
Taddei said foxes can get aggressive if they’re protecting their dens and this is the time of year when the pups are being born.
“That’s why it’s good to leave kitts alone if you see them,” he said. “Mom and dad could be looking for food but they could be close by.”
Although unsure of what caused the fox to act this way, Taddei said the animal might have had distemper due to an eye injury he observed. The viral infection can often be fatal but is not known to affect humans.
The fox might have had mange as there was hair loss on the tail, Taddei said, describing another disease that commonly affects foxes.
