A Vancouver wildlife photographer now has an extremely rare tale to tell after they were bitten by a rabid skunk while walking in the West End over the weekend. Guerric Haché, a COPE volunteer, was heading out to canvas for the municipal election on Saturday when they noticed a skunk by the sidewalk near the corner of Comox and Bute streets. “I started going like, ‘Hey, buddy, how you doing?’ You know, just seeing how the animal reacts,” they told CTV News. “It stood up, walked over, and bit my pant leg, my leg, and then bit my shoe. So I knew that was not good.” The resident has seen hundreds of skunks in the neighborhood and knows it’s unusual for one to approach a person, let alone bite one. “It was also kind of curled up on the ground, and it was fidgeting with its right side, and it was just behaving very strangely. So definitely very unusual,” they recall. Haché’s partner came to help trap the animal and they called Critter Care Wildlife Society to pick it up. ‘Small number’ of people bitten Vancouver Coastal Health has confirmed the captured skunk tested positive for rabies. Officials said a “small number” of people were bitten and received rabies vaccinations. Haché says the bite was not strong, but went to St. Paul’s Hospital in case it had punctured their skin. Haché has received rabies pre-exposure prophylaxis shots in the past to work with bats at Vancouver Aquarium, and received two boosters this week. “I’ve done all the recommendations and I should be fine,” they said. “Not biting anybody.” VCH urges anyone who had direct contact with a sick or abnormally behaving skunk in the West End or Stanley Park between Sept. 22 and Oct. 17 to seek medical attention. Rabies can be transmitted through a bite or scratch from an infected skunk, but not through their spray, urine or feces. Rabies infections in humans are extremely rare in Canada, but cases are nearly 100 per cent fatal. Thankfully, infections can be prevented by vaccines post-exposure. “It’s super rare for skunks to have rabies in B.C.,” Haché said. “It’s very, very uncommon, and it’s completely preventable with vaccinations. So if you get any kind of weird exposure to a wild mammal, just you or your dog or your cat, just go to a vet, go to a human doctor, and get all that checked out.”
