{"id":329426,"date":"2026-07-04T18:23:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T18:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/329426\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T18:23:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T18:23:10","slug":"florida-health-warns-against-contact-with-wild-animals-due-to-rabies-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/329426\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Health warns against contact with wild animals due to rabies risk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Florida Department of Health in Seminole County is reminding residents to avoid contact with wild and stray animals to reduce the risk of rabies exposure.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Health officials recommend keeping pets up to date on their rabies vaccinations, supervising pets outdoors and keeping them on a leash. Livestock should also be kept secured on owners\u2019 property.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Residents are urged not to handle, feed or attract wild or stray animals by leaving pet food or open garbage outside.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Anyone who is bitten or scratched by a wild or domestic animal should seek medical attention and report the incident to the Florida Department of Health in Seminole County.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Officials also advise residents not to adopt wild animals, to contact Seminole County Animal Services to report stray animals, and to prevent wildlife, including bats, from entering homes and other occupied buildings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">For more information about rabies, residents can contact the Florida Department of Health in Seminole County.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/mobile-apps\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:Click here;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Click here&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Click here<\/a> to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/video\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:click here;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;click here&quot;}\" class=\"link \">click here<\/a> to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.<\/p>\n<p><a data-ylk=\"ct:story;elm:img;itc:0;\" class=\"stretched-box\" href=\"https:\/\/wftvapps.com\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"537\" height=\"108\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/beda08358d6db9816e7b0d066edd22cf.jpeg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Florida Department of Health in Seminole County is reminding residents to avoid contact with wild and stray&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,1369,30,29,136215,1014,136214,21617],"class_list":["post-329426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-department-of-health","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-rabies-vaccinations","tag-seminole-county","tag-stray-animals","tag-wild-animals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329426","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=329426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}