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Small animal, big problem: Rabid baby raccoon exposure swells to 33 people in two states

By LIZ MITCHELL
lmitchell@islandpacket.com
843-706-8169

Published Wednesday, May 14, 2008

The number of people possibly exposed to a rabid raccoon has more than doubled from the number originally reported last week, state officials said Tuesday.

The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control also revealed Tuesday that the raccoon originally was adopted by Okatie residents visiting Wexford Plantation on Hilton Head Island. Last week, DHEC would only say that the animal was found on Hilton Head.

The state agency has now evaluated 33 Okatie and Georgia residents for possible exposure to the rabid animal, said DHEC spokeswoman Clair Boatwright.

Initially, 16 people had come in contact with the animal through kissing, holding and feeding it by putting their fingers in its mouth, DHEC said. Now, 24 are getting vaccinated to prevent them from contracting rabies, DHEC said Tuesday. The other nine were exposed to the raccoon, but did not need treatment. Boatwright said those nine did not touch the animal, but were part of the investigation.

Boatwright said 17 pets belonging to the exposed humans are under quarantine for 45 days.

The people who found the raccoon in the woods at Wexford passed it around to many of their friends and relatives, Boatwright said.

“They found it, took it to somebody else who kept it for a few days and thought someone else would want it,” she said. “It was the pass-around-pack for a while from what we understand.”

Chuck Chapman, chief of security at Wexford, said he has not gotten any recent reports about rabid animals or the baby raccoon found in the plantation.

“We get calls periodically from people involving animals, whether alligators or what appears to be sick or angry animals like stray dogs,” Chapman said. “We never get a call from somebody who says, ‘Hey I picked up a raccoon in the woods and I’m taking it home.’ “

Chapman said if wild animals are sick or causing problems in the plantation, he contacts Critter Management to remove the animal. He would also call DHEC if the animal had bitten a resident.

DHEC urges everyone to avoid touching or adopting a wild animal and to report any bites from potentially rabid animals.

“You just cannot tell from looking at it whether it’s diseased or not,” Boatwright said.

The raccoon began having seizures last week, was euthanized and its body sent to DHEC. The agency confirmed it tested positive for rabies.

This is the first confirmed rabid animal in Beaufort County for 2008. Last year, there were 162 confirmed cases of rabid animals across the state; none were in Beaufort County.

To Preserve Heat and Flavor, originally uploaded by Brian Knight Photography.

It’s a little known fact that Thomas Jefferson invented aluminum foil and strongly suggested to James Madison that the following be included in the Preamble.

The original was to read: "…form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, Preserve Heat and Flavour, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity…"

Hamilton argued in the Federalist Papers that "Preserving heat and flavour is a redundant argument covered by promoting the general welfare. And besides, I don’t like chili on my hot dogs." It was shortly after this pronouncement that Aaron Burr, who at the time was head lobbyist for the fledgling National Pork Producers Council, shot and mortally wounded Mr. Hamilton in a duel. They took their meats very seriously back in the day.

Things that brought on this project include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Tomorrow is trash day,
• the landlord is coming for an inspection,
• and we have termites, so presumably a termite killing person will be coming around soon too and wouldn’t it be nice if the basement looked somewhat tidy?

Things so far discarded or otherwise now have a plan for discardment:

• 9 42 gallon, 3 mil “Contractor” size black trash bags full of random crap
• 4 bike wheels (left by an old roommate, not really in any sort of working order)
• 3 bike tires (these in addition to the bike wheels which also had tires and presumably flat tubes)
• 2 snow shovels (now leaving me with still two snow shovels for my ~50 feet of sidewalk that I have to shovel maybe three times a year (if I am lucky) and that even in a heavy snow might take as many as 20 minutes to accomplish solo)
• 2 old, used up mops

• still to dispose of (but properly on account of the hazardous materials, etc.) many, many cans of paint (including a couple buckets full), two CRT computer monitors (14″ & 17″ respectively), possibly some old shoes, some furniture, etc.

I have to say the difference is really quite something. I wish I’d had thought to take a photo before hand.

On a side note, I should mention that the entire time  I was hauling all of this crap to the curb it has been raining. And raining. And raining.  Bearded men are building boats it is raining so much. And the trip to the curb is just far enough that a rain jacket and shoes that are not sandals would be a prudent choice, but each time I think to myself, “It’s not that far and it’s not that cold.” But really, it is.  Brrr! Just about time for a hot shower and then sleepy time on freshly laundered sheets.  (Freshly laundered sheets being the key to any nutritious night’s sleep).

swim bike run, originally uploaded by Brian Knight Photography.

Went on a whirlwind trip this weekend to the Eastern Shore to see about a triathlon. Still working on a couple hundred race photos that’ll probably get posted to a gallery at brianwknight.com. In the meantime you can see a few in this set including some collages that I threw together in photoshop and BIg Huge Labs.

Last minute road trip, originally uploaded by Brian Knight Photography.

To some place on the md eastern shore for a triathlon.

The past few months I’ve been doing a lot of camera-less driving and it’s been killing me.

Last year, after kicking myself enough times for not having a camera on hand to try to capture some scene or another, I took to driving around with a camera in the car. And not just in the car, but in the front seat, and out of the case. And I did this a lot. And I took pictures from the car, lots and lots of pictures.

Then at work when I happened to notice some particularly nice light or a cool weather front moving through the area, I started taking “coffee breaks” and “long lunches.” I’d dash out to my car, drive out to a field or forest, and snap away hoping to catch something, anything to preserve the view in front of me.

I still try and practise this routine of having the camera with me as often as possible, but it’s mostly confined to weekends and the occasional weeknight*.

Anyways, there is a great point to this post and it is this… The latest addition to my news reader is the Nat Geo Adventure blog, discovered most likely, thanks to Kraig (another daily must read). Their latest posts comes from the magazine’s West Coast Editor, Steve Casimiro. He’s blogging about one of two of his best photographic tips gathered over the years and it is a tip that totally reinforces my want of carrying a camera with me at all times.

I know not everyone gets this. Even people who should know better sometimes ask silly questions. For instance, I was at a mountain bike race recently and for a change I was not part of the official photography team. As I walked around the race course catching up with friends I ran into an ex-girlfriend and we had sort of a weird exchange.

Noticing the camera hanging from my shoulder she asked, “Getting some good shots?” And because I wasn’t really taking pictures, but had the camera just in case, I replied, “Not really.”Looking confused I’m pretty sure she said something like, “Then why do you have your camera?” I don’t think I replied. I think I sort of stared dumbly while thinking to myself, “Um, hi, have we met?”

I almost always have a camera. And it’s because you never know. If I’d just gone to the race to hang out, I’d never have gotten this shot,which every time I look at it makes me break into a big, big smile. So take my word for it, take Steve Casimiro’s word for it. Take your camera with you.

* grrr… I hate the word weeknight - but that’s a whole other blog posting.

I was playing around with the video feature on my point & shoot, trying to get some of the rain and thunder. The storm was close by, within a mile, you could count about three seconds before the thunder rolled across the sky bringing a final crackle that shook the house.

About 1:19 seconds into this (basically the very, very end), the audio goes out and there are a couple flashes of light… That’s when a bolt of lighting struck about 50 yards in front of me. There was no separation between light and sound. It came all at once and my heart made a good attempt to escape from my chest. I’d been lying on the floor and in one relatively swift motion I clicked the shutter button (and stopped recording), slammed shut the door, and bolted up the stairs as if some escaped animal from the zoo might have been chasing me.

For only $19.99 this shirt can be yours.

Or this one. Or this one. Or any of these.

To paraphrase… Did all the adults leave for the evening? Was no one in charge?

I would have loved to be sitting in the corner of that conference room when they decided to “go with that t-shirt idea thing.”

Some exec who normally doesn’t have anything to do with the site design barges in, waving a piece of paper in the air (it’s a print off a Cafe Press site)…

“This is amazing. I have an amazing idea. What if cnn.com sold t-shirts? My daughter was showing me this site, this Cafe Press site thing, and I guess they will let you Print What Ever You Want!! WE could do that. WE should do that.

And then the exec left with these parting words:

The girl ringing me up says she’s not convinced, says the bad plastic has been in baby bottles for years and we’re all ok, right?

I looked at her and said, “What if we’re not?”

She paused a moment, reflecting on my question. You could see her deflate a bit, then she simply answered, “Oh. Oh yeah.”