New Jersey Woman Kills Rabid Fox With Her Bare Hands
July 26, 2018, 11:40 a.m.
'It was biting at my leg, I had to do something.'
New Jersey woman Tammy DuBois was out inspecting her garden on July 18th when she suddenly found herself fighting off a rabid fox.
DuBois, 52, had stopped to check a bird feeder near her house when a fox darted from the bushes and jumped up against her leg making yipping noises, DuBois told NJ.com. "I just backed up," DuBois said. "It was going crazy, making noises and its mouth was moving."
DuBois said the fox bit her repeatedly on her right leg. Bleeding, she tried to escape inside her home, but the fox followed her onto the porch, continuing to bite DuBois as she struggled to open the door.
That's where things got primeval. With the fox still biting her leg, DuBois literally took matters into her own hands, reaching down to subdue the animal. She said she used one hand to hold its snout shut, while the other grabbed the fox's neck and squeezed.
"It was biting at my leg, I had to do something," DuBois told NJ.com. After a brief struggle, she said the fox went limp, and DuBois tossed the dead fox away from her. "I couldn't do anything else to get it away from me," she said. "I don't like to kill anything."
DuBois was treated at a nearby hospital for her injuries and has begun a two week-long treatment for rabies. Tests conducted on the fox carcass confirmed the animal was rabid.
This is the third rabies case confirmed in Salem County, New Jersey, this year, although it marks the first where a human was attacked.
Residents of Westchester county in New York have also recently been menaced by a potentially rabid fox which attacked three people over the weekend.
