Number of rabid raccoons caught this year climbing fast

  Virginia Beach – Animal control officers are encouraging residents to secure trash cans and vaccinate pets following four raccoon attacks in less than a month.  This week, a raccoon that tested positive for rabies attacked a dog in the Thalia Manor neighborhood, the Virginia Beach Department of Public Health reported.  That raises the number of rabid raccoons captured this year to 13, putting the city on pace to surpass the 14 rabid raccoons seized last year.  “It seems like we’re getting more raccoon-dog tangos, but I don’t know if it’s just a fluke or what,” Beach animal control spokesman Wayne Gilbert said.  In the latest incident, a dog on the 400 block of Rudel Lane attacked a raccoon that wandered into the neighborhood. The same thing happened last month in the Kempsville, Seatack and Kings Grant neighborhoods. The number of rabid raccoon captures in other cities pales in comparison to Virginia Beach. Norfolk’s captured two since the beginning of the year.

Suffolk and Chesapeake each had one. Portsmouth has not recorded any. Valerie Thompson, a Beach environmental health supervisor, said it should not come as a surprise more raccoons are turning up.
Virginia Beach is surrounded by wooded areas and waterways, which are raccoons’ natural habitats. As the city expands, they’re forced out. “Their habitat is being cut down and destroyed, so they’re on the move,” Thompson said. Upon entering neighborhoods, she said, raccoons discover convenient food sources – things like trash cans and leftover pet food. The animals easily contract rabies, which is pervasive among wild animals in the area, Thompson said. Those in the later stages of the disease could attack animals and humans. All the dogs that have come into contact with raccoons this year had the rabies vaccination. Dogs that don’t must be euthanized. Keeping pets secure will prevent them from encountering rabid raccoons, Gilbert said. Residents should also get rid of likely food sources. There’s no way to tell if the number caught will continue to rise at the current rate, Gilbert said. “This could be the last one we capture this year,” he said. “But my gut feeling is that it won’t be.”