Update re: Troxler's Dog
We reported in today's paper (unposted) that Sharon Troxler, Ag Commissioner Steve Troxler's wife, had been bitten while trying to rescue her puppy from an animal, possibly a rabid fox. She continues to recuperate but her dog was not so lucky.
Here's the sad update for tomorrow's paper:
BROWNS SUMMIT - While Sharon Troxler continues to recover from an attack by an animal that may have been a rabid fox, Carteret the dog was not so lucky.
"I had to have her put to sleep this morning," said Steve Troxler, Sharon's husband and the state Agriculture Commissioner.
Sharon Troxler intervened when she discovered an animal attacking Carteret, a pale yellow-white Labrador, on Tuesday.
That animal also bit her several times and she is now being treated for rabies.
Troxler said that he and his wife hoped avoid putting Carteret to sleep as late as Thursday, but were left with little choice.
"There was a very high probability that she would contract rabies," Troxler said. Carteret, who was 13-weeks-old, was too young to get rabies shots, he said.
Given the likelihood she would get the disease the few options but keeping her in quarantine for 6 months, Troxler said that putting the dog down was the only humane thing to do.
"It was a gut wrenching decision," he said. "I wish there had been another way. Everybody was trying to figure a way around this."
The Troxlers adopted Carteret during a prolonged and contentious debate over who had won the state agriculture commissioner race in Nov. 2. Much of the conflict centered on lost votes from Carteret County in eastern North Carolina.
Although the animal that attacked Carteret and Sharon was not immediately captured, a rabid fox was found the next day in the same area.
Comments (1)
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That is a very tough deal for Commissioner Troxler.
Our beagle tangled with a baby opposum three years ago. She took 30 stitches in her face, with not more than two stitches on any one laceration. Luckily, the opposum fled as my wife approached the fight.
Posted on March 4, 2005 3:07 PM