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© St. Petersburg Times, published September 10, 2002
HUDSON -- The Pasco County Health Department issued a rabies alert Monday after recent test results revealed a third fox with rabies in the county.
No humans were attacked in the most recent incident, which took place Aug. 31 on Morgan Road, north of State Road 52 and about 2 miles east of Little Road.
Two dogs fought with a fox and killed it, said Cree Morgan, a rabies control officer with Pasco County Animal Control. Test results revealed Friday that the fox had rabies. The dogs, which had previously been vaccinated for rabies, have been placed under quarantine and observation in their home for 45 days, he said.
Though all three foxes with rabies were found in the Hudson area, the alert is countywide to remind residents to vaccinate their pets.
The Health Department recommends:
Pet owners should vaccinate their dogs and cats over the age of three months.
People should avoid free-roaming dogs and cats and wild animals.
Pet owners should confine all dogs, cats and captive wild mammals to the owner's premises.
Do not feed or pet wild animals
If someone is bitten or attacked, call the Health Department at 869-3900, ext. 179. To report stray cats or dogs or for instructions about wild animals, call Animal Control at 834-3216 or (813) 929-1217.
The Aug. 31 incident happened only a few blocks away from where Eddie "Buddy" Suggs was attacked by a rabid fox on Choctaw Trail in July.
Suggs, 56, suffers from a circulatory disease and has had his legs amputated just below the knees. The fox lunged at Suggs as he sat in his three-wheeled scooter. He threw himself on top of the fox and pinned it while a neighbor beat the animal to death with a hammer. Suggs later was treated with rabies shots.
A Hudson woman was attacked nearby before Suggs' ordeal, but that fox was never found, Morgan said.
In August, another rabid fox was found after the animal jumped out of the bushes and bit a 73-year-old man on Reynolds Road in Hudson, about 2 miles west of Little Road. The man beat the fox, which was found dead by Animal Control officers and tested positive for rabies. The man was treated with shots.
That makes three foxes found with rabies this year out of a total of seven animals, said Chris Abarca, health educator at the Public Health Department. The department issued the alert to stay in effect for 60 days. At this time last year, eight animals had tested positive for rabies.
The most recent rabies alert in Pasco County was issued last year after three raccoons in New Port Richey tested positive for rabies.