Raccoons bite 7-year-old boy, adult in separate broad daylight attacks in tony NYC suburb

A pair of rowdy raccoons bit a 7-year-old boy and an adult in two separate attacks in a tony New York City suburb Saturday.The victims were attacked within hours of each other in Ridgewood, New Jersey before sunset Saturday.The young boy was bitten in the upper leg near Maple Field & Community Garden around 7 p.m.The adult was nipped on private property, though it’s unclear when, ABC 7 reported.Both victims received treatment for rabies as a precaution.

The attacks took place in broad daylight, which typically indicates the nocturnal assailant is rabid.Ridgewood officials are considering laying rabies vaccination pellets in areas where woodland mammals frequent, the outlet reported.

Federal agencies have seeded rabies pellets for years and noted that the vaccinated bait doesn’t pose a threat to other animals or people.The pellets are consumable and serve as oral vaccinations against rabies.Local animal control officers are still searching for the raccoons responsible for the sneak attacks.

They separately warned against feeding, approaching or handling any wild animal, rabid or otherwise.In early May, a rabid beaver sank its buck teeth into an 8-year-old boy’s leg while he was fishing at a lake in Mahwah, New Jersey.Mahwah is just 10 miles away from Ridgewood.A bystander captured the moment the beaver emerged from the lake and charged at the shellshocked boy.One of the boy’s relatives managed to wrangle the beaver and chucked it back into the water.The wild rodent bit several other park-goers before it launched the final assault on the boy....