Independent Animal Care Services LLC

Seeing a sick or injured wild animal on you property?

IACS is always available to respond to calls and complaints regarding sick or injured wildlife that poses a treat of rabies. If you see a sick or injured wild animal and its after normal office hours, please contact your local police department. 

Rabies is a fatal disease, click here to understand more. If you or your pet have been exposed to a sick wild animal, special precautions must be taken and the suspected animal should be tested for rabies. Please do not discard any animals, dead or alive, that you or your animal may have been exposed to.

Although all mammals can carry the rabies virus, the most common animals that pose a threat in our area are bats, raccoons, skunks, foxes, and groundhogs. To learn more about the wildlife that lives in our area you can visit www.njfishandwildlife.com or  www.cedarrun.org for more information.

SOME FUN FACTS!!!

Opossums are amazingly resistant to rabies. This may have something to do with the opossums low body temperature (94-97F) Hissing, drooling, and swaying are part of the opossum’s bluff routine. It is intended to scare away potential predators, yet it looks just like rabies and is the reason people can be convinced they’re seeing “rabid opossums” when they’re not.

If you see a raccoon in your yard during the day, don’t panic—she is not necessarily sick or dangerous. It’s perfectly normal for raccoons to be active throughout the day. She may merely be foraging longer hours to support her young, visiting a garden while the dogs are indoors, or moving to a new location.

Rodents (squirrels, chipmunks, rats, mice, hamsters, gerbils, and guinea pigs), rabbits, and hares rarely get rabies and have not been known to cause rabies among humans in the United States. Squirrels may suffer from the fatal roundworm brain parasite, which causes signs that look exactly like rabies.

HOW DO I KNOW ITS SICK???

Key in on the behavior of the animal before calling for assistance. Look for:

Staggering gait
An animal seemingly oblivious to noise or nearby movement
Erratic wandering
Discharge from eyes or mouth
Wet and matted hair on face
Repeated high-pitch vocalization (although this is common with juveniles)
Self-mutilation
If you see an animal showing these signs, call us or police department!