Two Rocky Brook Road dogs are under a 45-day home quarantine following after an apparent skirmish with a raccoon that resulted in the wild animal being killed, officials say.
A homeowner had been aware that her coonhound and boxer, both mixed-breed dogs, had come upon a young raccoon in her yard on the night of June 14, according to a police report.
The raccoon had been cornered on the property and, the next morning, the homeowner found the animal dead in the yard, the report said.
Though the dogs, both up-to-date on their rabies shots, had been in contact with the raccoon, the state no longer automatically tests wildlife such as raccoons when they have direct contact with domestic animals.
Under new testing requirements published in April by the Connecticut Department of Public Health, the state laboratory also no longer tests bats submitted by nuisance wildlife control operators, small rodents such as mice, rats and chipmunks, or rabbits.
The change—made for financial reasons, according to the DPH—comes one year after 8 percent of the animals submitted to the state (334 of 4,462) tested positive for rabies. To undergo testing, the animals are decapitated so that their brains can be examined.
Here’s a table that breaks down rabies testing at the state laboratory by species for 2014-15:
Results of Rabies Testing in Connecticut, 2014-15
| Species | No. Tested | Tested Positive | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 4,462 | 334 | 8% |
| Bats | 1,586 | 48 | 3% |
| Cats | 1,023 | 10 | 1% |
| Dogs | 693 | 5 | less than 1% |
| Raccoons | 416 | 183 | 44% |
| Skunks | 301 | 84 | 28% |
| Groundhogs | 145 | 4 | 3% |
| Opossums | 95 | 0 | 0% |
I wonder (assume?) if the higher rate for raccoons (and skunks) is because the ones they test are already suspect.