EAST HAVEN — Officials say another raccoon in town has tested positive for rabies.
The East Shore District Health Department says that the second raccoon was found after interacting with a family pet. Animal control picked up the raccoon on Thursday, December 12th in the area of Cosey Beach Road and it later tested positive for rabies.
Officials ask that if you or your dogs or other animals have been in contact with a raccoon in this area in the past week or so, please contact East Haven Animal Control at 230-468-3246.
Here are simple precautions that you can take to make sure you and your pet can stay safe:
- Vaccinate your pets. Be sure your pet dogs, cats and ferrets as well as horses and valuable livestock animals are up-to-date on their rabies vaccinations. Pets too young to be vaccinated should be kept indoors and allowed outside only under direct observation.
- Keep family pets indoors at night. Don’t leave them outside unattended or let them roam free.
- Don’t attract wild animals to your home or yard. Keep your property free of stored bird seed or other foods that may attract wild animals. Feed pets indoors. Tightly cap or put away garbage cans.
- Block up any places where animals may find shelter, under sheds, in crawl spaces, etc.
- Don’t feed, touch or adopt wild animals, stray dogs or cats. Enjoy wildlife from a distance. If you see an animal that is sick, injured or orphaned, call an animal control officer or a wildlife rehabilitator. Do not handle the animal yourself.
- Get wild animals removed from your home. If nuisance wild animals are living in parts of your home, consult with a nuisance wildlife control expert about having them removed.
- Teach children not to touch any animal they do not know and to tell an adult immediately if they are bitten by any animal.
- Let wild animals wander away if they are on your property. Bring children and pets indoors and alert neighbors who are outside.
- Report all animal bites or contact with wild animals to your local health department. If possible, do not let any animal escape that has possibly exposed someone to rabies.
To learn more about rabies in both humans and animals, contact the Centers for Disease Control at 1-800- CDC-INFO (1-800-232-4636), or visit http://www.cdc.gov/rabies. For further information, contact the East Shore District Health Department, serving the towns of Branford, North Branford, and East Haven at (203)-481-4233 or by visiting our website at http://www.ESDHD.org.
