Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Dead Rabid Fox in the middle of the road. Whose responsible to remove?

Recently a dead fox was in the middle of the roadway here in Samoa on Rideout St. I saw a Humboldt Sheriff's car near the entrance of Samoa and stopped and asked a lady sheriff if she has seen the fox in the road. She said that was not her jurisdiction and that I should call county roads. It was a Sunday so I knew that would be fruitless.

Shouldn't a county sheriff be looking out for the health and well being of the people? I was going to call some animal agencies to see who should be removing the animal and walked out to the spot it was laying and it was gone! Either someone in Samoa took it away or some agency was contacted. Who should take care of dead animal removal? And where does the agency responsible dispose of these type of animals?

24 comments:

"Bob" said...

Maybe the crows dragged it off. I'm sure that's who the county would like to see handle things like that.

Have you had rabid foxes out there? I thought they were mostly in Sunnybrae.

rick mitchell said...

If she said it wasn't in there jurisdiction. I would ask what she was doing out there. Because if you would have shot it they would be out there investigating the gun shots.
I think its fish and game problem.

Anonymous said...

In Eureka, the Eureka City Police remove dead animals from the streets. We had a dead skunk and a dead racoon in the middle of the street directly in front of our house. We called the EPD, and both times the animal was removed within a few hours.

Rose said...

Honest to God, people! Get a shovel and bury it.

What? You have to wait for some government agency to move a carcass out of the road?

ARE YOU NUTS?

Anonymous said...

Rose,
I can see that on a city street, but not on a highway or a freeway. First, you may get runned over and 2nd, the cops will probably ticket you for burying a dead animal or parking on a thru way

Anonymous said...

Rose: It was most likely rabid. I do not know the protocol or safe way fo handling this animal. But I am sure there are agencies that do.

Rose said...

Men. What has happened to you?

First of all, not every fox, and not every fox who gets hit by a car, is rabid. Second, if you use a shovel, you aren't touching it. Third, if all you do is move it off the road, and not bury it, that's probably fine. IF you're worried about it. You could just leave it where it is, just like all the raccoons and skunks, cats and possums that get hit every day.

You guys are cracking me up.

Rose said...

Then again, maybe it wasn't dead. Maybe just knocked out, came to, and ran off.

Anonymous said...

Rose was born a century too late.

Manaia said...

http://www.nps.gov/archive/npsa/5atlas/partv.htm

Samoa? the islands in the South Pacific? a flying fox dead in the middle of the road? in Samoa? what is Humboldt? that doesn't even look familiarly like Samoan! You spoke to someone out on the road--on a Sunday!--let alone speak to anyone? In Samoa it is taboo to be doing anything but attending church on a Sunday! That would be a good reason for the sheriff to be out on a Sunday. I must find out about this "Rideout Street", its so American for Samoan standards. And another thing... any dead animals on the road would be taken and eaten in Samoa!

Manaia said...

http://www.nps.gov/archive/npsa/5atlas/partv.htm

Samoa in the South Pacific? south of the equator? What is Rideout Street, where is Rideout Street in Samoa? And, if anything, any animal dead or alive in the middle of any road in Samoa is going to be taken or eaten right away! No problem there. Esp. on a Sunday, where it is law--taboo--for everyone is doing the Lord's service on the Sabbath. Are you sure you are on Samoa in the South Pacific?

Anonymous said...

Today at 3pm local time, Nick Bravo commited suicide by jumping to his death in Chandler AZ.

Fred Mangels said...

Rose wrote, "Then again, maybe it wasn't dead. Maybe just knocked out, came to, and ran off.".

I saw that happen once with an opossum. I might of mentioned it on my blog a couple or three years ago.

Went out in front of my house one night and noticed a possum lying in the south bound lane of E street. Looked like maybe it had been run over and was dead. Odd thing was, there was a house cat next to it sniffing it. Never seen that before.

I was worried about the cat getting run over so I moved closer and started yelling (quietly) for the cat to get out of there. Finally it noticed me and took off.

Then I had to figure out what to do with the dead possum. I wasn't sure if I wanted to deal with yet another dead animal as my back yard is full of them.

As I was trying to decide what to do about the possum, it got up and walked over to my side of the road. Seems to me there were some cars parked along my side of the street at the time and I lost sight of it. I figured it must have just been playing possum.

Next morning I came out and found the possum dead on the sidewalk. It looked like something had been eating it as the ribs were showing. Weird. Couldn't of had an injury like that and just got up and walked away like it did the night before.

Sickening as it was, I grabbed a shovel, picked the possum up and buried it over by my garage.

Fred Mangels said...

11:28 wrote, "In Eureka, the Eureka City Police remove dead animals from the streets.".

Actually, I think that's the City of Eureka Animal Control folks that dispose of dead animals. You were lucky to have them come so quick, though.

I believe it was after the aforementioned possum incident I woke up one morning to find a dead skunk out in the street in front of my house. It was really gross and I was feeling a bit under the weather so didn't want anything to do with it.

Problem was, its entrails were spread out in the street. Feeling the way I did I almost lost my cookies. Having done more than my share of disposing of dead animals, I told myself this time it's not my problem.

And I'm told it stank to high heaven, but I have almost no sense of smell so didn't notice it.

I figured since it was closer to the Matteoli's house they should deal with. Of course, that would be the last thing to expect, so there the skunk sat.

For days.

I forget how many days it sat there. At least two, maybe three or four, and this was on one of Eureka's main drags: E street. One of the gals that works at Henderson Center Rite Aid who drives through there on the way to work even commented on the smell.

Finally, some days later, a gal showed up in an Animal Control truck, scooped the skunk up with a shovel and threw it in the back of her truck. End of problem.

Anonymous said...

How do you know it was rabid Richard?

samoasoftball said...

I didn't know if it was rabid. I assumed. We do not have many foxes come into the middle of Samoa. See plenty on the outskirts though.

Anonymous said...

Call Larry Glass, Chris
Carrigan, Bonnie Neely..or
some other Union person...

Rose said...

There's one of those "how many _____ does it take to screw in a lightbulb" jokes here somewhere.

Anonymous said...

Chris Carrigan. Who is that?

Carol said...

There are rabid animals throughout Humboldt County. I saw a rabid skunk once. It was broad daylight and this skunk appeared acting like it was drunk and foaming at the mouth and falling down. It was sad. The next day it was dead.

Joel Mielke said...

"Honest to God, people! Get a shovel and bury it."

There's nothing I like more than disagreeing with Rose, but goddammit, she's right.

Rose said...

:) Ver-rrry funny, CPR.

samoasoftball said...

OK. I get the point. Take shovel into hand. Pick up dead animal. Drive to Rose's house. Bury in the back of her yard. Am I missing anything?

Indie said...

The trouble is the county and the state compile statistics about rabid animals in the area. These statistics are important to our public health. If everyone grabbed a shovel and buried animals they suspected of rabies, then we can count on the stats being incorrect.