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Rabies reports lead to alert for those playing, hiking

A Loyalsock Township man whose wife was bitten on the ankle by a rabid gray fox outside their home last week says he is concerned there may be other rabid wildlife.

David Livermore has an urgent warning for parents and children playing or walking in the woods or rural settings.

His wife was bitten by the animal that charged and when Livermore killed it and had the state Game Commission officer remove it, the animal was tested at the state Department of Health laboratory and it came back positive for rabies.

The couple live in the area of the 1000 block of Northway Road Extension, not far from many other houses and developments and close to the city.

He said his wife had an initial round of vaccine about an hour after the incident, and a second anti-rabies vaccine, but had to return to have the wounds checked out because they were not healing properly.

“I just wanted to relay that the fox was rabid and that means other animals are rabid,” Livermore said.

At the end of May, a gray fox also charged several people at the river lot at Montgomery, he said.

“It bit a 19-month-old’s diaper,” Livermore said. “It bit the mother in the ankle.”

He said he heard about a possible report of a rabid animal near Lock Haven.

The ordeal of getting bit by a wild animal and then not knowing and getting the rabies shots is nerve-racking, he explained.

“I am thinking of all of the children playing outside and ask them to be cautious,” he said.

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