Rabid Raccoon Killed After Charging People In OC

OCEAN CITY -- Worcester County Health Department officials are urging residents and visitors to Ocean City to use caution around wild animals this week after a rabid raccoon was discovered.

The health department was initially notified on Tuesday about an aggressive raccoon near Northside Park that had already attacked one individual. It was later learned that two more individuals were charged by what authorities believe is the same raccoon.

The raccoon first came at a group of landscapers working around Northside Park on Tuesday and made contact with one of the crewmembers. Although the individual wasn’t bitten, nor did he have an open wound, the worker was treated with shots for rabies because he had come in contact with the rabid wild animal.

Strangely enough, the same landscaping crew was working in a different area in north Ocean City about five blocks away the next day when presumably the same rabid raccoon attacked them again. The raccoon reportedly swam across a canal and came out of the water soaking wet and aggressively approached the landscaping crew, which ultimately hit the animal with a shovel and killed it. The dead raccoon later tested positive for rabies.
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