BANGOR DAILY NEWS • March 30, 2021
Kimberly Bashant was smoking on her home’s deck in Bay Bridges Estate, a mobile home park, about 8 p.m. when she heard the fox beneath her. Bashant grabbed a bat and was peering over the railing when the fox came up the deck’s stairs and bit her leg. “I started beating him with the bat,” Bashant said. “It’s awful. I mean, I’m an animal lover but I had to do what I had to do.” The fox was knocked unconscious and neighbors who came to her aid finished it off. The fox wasn’t tested for rabies, because it did not break Bashant’s skin and no pets were exposed. Midcoast Maine has seen a surge in rabies cases over the past couple years, with Brunswick seeing 3 in both 2020 and 2019 and 9 in 2018. In nearby Bath, 18 people and pets were attacked by rabid animals in 2019 and early 2020.