JAY – A 15-year-old Jay girl started a series of rabies shots Saturday after she was bitten by a skunk she had picked up and brought home.
She didn’t mention being bitten until the day after it was let go.
The girl found the skunk Friday at the baseball field on Stone Street, said Jay Animal Control Officer Larry Wright. She picked up the skunk and took it home, he said.
When the girl’s mother called Wright, he asked her if the skunk had bitten anyone.
Since the answer was “no,” Wright said, he advised the mother to take the skunk to a back-country area and release it. Before the family took it back, he said, they took photos of it.
On Saturday, the girl told her family that the skunk had bitten her on the ankle, Wright said.
The girl went to Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington, and she had to start rabies shots, he said. She’ll need four more shots, he said.
Wright said he went to the ball field Saturday and again Sunday to search for the skunk, but couldn’t find it.
He used the pictures that were taken of the skunk in his effort to look for it.
The skunk’s white stripe doesn’t go all the way down its back, he said. It starts at the neck and goes a short way down its back, to about its shoulders, then branches into a “Y” down both sides, Wright said.
People need to leave wildlife alone, he said.
If people see wildlife where it’s not normally seen or out of its environment, Wright said, they should call the police to reach the animal control officer or a game warden.
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