Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 16, 1991 TAG: 9102160476
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK LAYMAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Dr. Molly Hagan, director of the Alleghany Health District of the state Health Department, said Friday that typically, the raccoon wouldn't be tested because it didn't bite any people or pets.
But the Meadowlark Road resident who spotted the raccoon said it was having seizures, "so it was suspicious."
A relative of the woman's shot and killed the raccoon and left it outside in a garbage can. It will be picked up today, Hagan said.
The Health Department should have the results of the test late next week. "If it's negative, that's great," she said. "If not, we can publicize it and encourage people to get their pets vaccinated."
Roanoke County's animal control officer, Ken Hogan, said that, as far as he knows, there hasn't been a confirmed case of rabies in the county since October 1972. In that case, a dog was infected after fighting with a rabid fox.
"Of course, I'm not so naive as to think there isn't any rabies in Roanoke County," he said.
In fact, there have been confirmed cases of rabies in wild animals and pets in Craig, Botetourt and Montgomery counties in the past year, Hagan said.
Raccoon sitings have been common in and around Roanoke in recent weeks. Capt. W.W. Nance of the law enforcement division of the state Department of Game and Inland Fisheries said that, as winter drags on, the food supply declines in the raccoons' mountain habitats. "They're looking for a free meal . . . People set food out for their pets and the raccoons eat it."
The raccoon population also has grown because few people trap 'coons nowadays. "There's little value in their fur," he said.
Many of the raccoons that have been seen in neighborhoods have distemper. "A lot of people assume when they see a sick animal that it has rabies," Nance said. A raccoon with distemper will be disoriented and listless, "like a human with a severe case of the flu." A raccoon with rabies will be more aggressive.
And if a raccoon is able to climb a tree, it probably doesn't have rabies, Hogan said.
Anyone who sees a raccoon, or any wild animal, that appears to be sick should call state game wardens, he said. "The best thing to do is leave it alone. [A raccoon] can be right nasty, especially a big one."
Martha Zirkle, the resident who spotted the raccoon, said it wasn't easy Thursday night and Friday to find the proper agency to dispose of it. "I called so darn many numbers . . . " including the county and state police and the state Health Department in Richmond.
Hagan said the question of "who's in charge?" when a wild animal wanders into a neighborhood is a valid one. The county's animal control officers usually deal with pets, not wild animals. And game wardens "often don't like to handle wild animals unless they're in the wild," she said.
by CNB