{"id":297221,"date":"2026-06-05T14:18:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T14:18:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/297221\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T14:18:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T14:18:06","slug":"rabies-advisory-issued-in-charlotte-county-after-raccoon-tests-positive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/297221\/","title":{"rendered":"Rabies advisory issued in Charlotte County after raccoon tests positive"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">SARASOTA, Fla. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mysuncoast.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.mysuncoast.com\/\">WWSB<\/a>) &#8211; The Florida Department of Health in Charlotte County has issued a rabies advisory after a raccoon tested positive for rabies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The raccoon was captured May 29 in the area off Jarvis Street in Charlotte County, according to DOH-Charlotte. Health officials said residents and visitors should be aware that rabies may currently be present in the wild animal population.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Rabies can be carried by wild animals, including raccoons, bats, foxes, skunks, otters, bobcats and coyotes. People and domestic animals should avoid physical contact with wild animals, health officials said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">DOH-Charlotte is urging residents to keep pets and livestock vaccinated based on a veterinarian\u2019s recommended schedule.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Pets should be kept under direct supervision and on a leash. Livestock should be secured on private property.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">If an animal bites a pet or livestock, owners should seek veterinary care immediately and contact Charlotte County Animal Control at 941-833-5690.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Health officials also warned residents not to handle, feed or unintentionally attract wild or stray animals. Outdoor pet food, open garbage cans and other food sources can draw animals closer to homes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Anyone bitten or scratched by a wild or domestic animal should seek medical attention and report the injury to DOH-Charlotte at 941-624-7200.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Residents should never adopt wild animals or bring them into their homes. Instead, they should contact a licensed wildlife rehabilitator.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">DOH-Charlotte also recommends preventing wildlife, including bats, from entering homes, schools and other occupied spaces where they could come into contact with people or pets.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">More information about rabies is available at FloridaHealth.gov\/Rabies or by calling DOH-Charlotte at 941-624-7200.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 WWSB. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) &#8211; The Florida Department of Health in Charlotte County has issued a rabies advisory after&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,125175,125177,125173,125174,125176],"class_list":["post-297221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-florida-rabies-alert","tag-pet-vaccination-rabies","tag-rabies-advisory-charlotte-county","tag-raccoon-tests-positive-rabies","tag-wild-animal-rabies-warning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}