INDIANTOWN — For years, the owners of J&R Outfitters ran a hunting lodge featuring exotic game such as Asian water buffalo, Nilgai antelope and Pere David deer thinking they had all the required Martin County permits.

But several code violations were discovered at J&R Outfitters last fall after the opening of a shooting range that outraged nearby homeowners with incessant gunfire.

Now Bill Richey and Joe O’Bannon are aiming to keep their hunting lodge open by jumping through all the regulatory hoops that apply to their business at 7600 S.W. Fox Brown Road.

“We never dreamed that what we were doing was illegal and we never tried to get away with anything,” said Richey, a former state prosecutor. “We have been no secret in Martin County. We have been here for 20 years.” (more…)

A fox suspected of having rabies reportedly bit a 58-year-old woman on her hand and leg Tuesday night after the animal ran in her house, according to officials and a St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office report released Wednesday.

The fox, described as gray and the size of a house cat, reportedly also bit a neighbor and attacked the car of his 17-year-old daughter before the daughter ran over the fox. The incident happened in the 10000 block of Bluefield Road in the western portion of the county, and the 58-year-old woman said she “somehow” got the fox out of her home.

James Moses, environmental administrator for the St. Lucie County Health Department, said the fox was recovered and is being tested at a state laboratory in Lantana to determine whether it has rabies. He suspects the fox had rabies “based on the description of the animal’s actions.”

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