Fox Attacked Dog In New Brunswick, Woman Says; City Urges Caution

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — A fox was spotted in the Edgebrook neighborhood of New Brunswick Thursday, and city officials are warning residents to keep a lookout for the animal and report any sightings of it to police.

One woman, Suzanne Sicora-Ludwig, who happens to be the president of the New Brunswick City Council, said the fox attacked her neighbor's dog Thursday morning. She said this happened in the area of Edgebrook Road and Pennington Road and she notified a city spokesman immediately after it happened.

"She is OK, but the vet gave her a rabies booster to be safe," she said of the dog.

Another New Brunswick resident posted that she too encountered the fox Thursday morning, and "knocked it in the head with a brick and a broom," but it ran off.

The fox has not been captured and there is no way to confirm if the fox has rabies. However, Animal Control has been notified and they responded to the Edgebrook neighborhood to look for the fox, said New Brunswick city spokesman Bert Baron on Thursday afternoon.

"Be cautious if you or your pets are outdoors in that area. Avoid the animal if you see it and call 911 to report the location," said the city of New Brunswick in a Facebook post, with a photo of the fox.

This comes the same week that six children were attacked by a fox in Lakewood, all within a 1-mile radius of a park and playground. That happened on Tuesday; six children were attacked by the fox in separate incidents and five of the children were actually bitten.

It was not clear if a single animal was involved or if there were multiple foxes that attacked the kids. All of the attacks happened within a 1-mile radius of John Street Park, and two children were bitten inside the park.

Also on Tuesday, the state closed down Double Trouble State Park in Berkeley Township while they tried to trap a potentially rabid fox that was spotted "behaving erratically" and had "encounters" with park visitors, officials said. That fox was captured and did indeed end up having rabies, the state Health Dept. said Thursday.

Double Trouble State Park is more than 15 miles from where the children were bitten in Lakewood.

Foxes carry diseases such as rabies, according to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. If you or your child is attacked or bitten by a wild animal, the state urges you to meet with a doctor and get the rabies vaccine for prevention.

In 2018, a six-year-old Orlando, Florida boy died from rabies after he was scratched by a bat, which his parents warned him not to touch, but he picked up anyway. His parents did not get him the rabies shots quickly enough before his symptoms started to appear. He was put into a medically-induced coma and underwent a treatment known as the "Milwaukee Protocol" in hopes of saving his life. The treatment has saved the lives of two other children in America. It did not save his life. The boy died and the last photo of him was in a coma in a hospital bed, with his teddy bear next to him.

Rabies is lethal in nearly 100 percent of all cases, but it is entirely preventable if the vaccines are given to humans and animals immediately after being bitten.

With reporting from Karen Wall/Ocean County Patch reporter