"It was in what we call the stupid state," Animal Control Officer Sherwood Nance told the Silver City Sun-News of a fox found hiding in some juniper bushes in northwest Silver City Tuesday. "It was acting sick, almost like it was drunk."

The fox tried to attack him and was put down by a Silver City police officer around 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nance told the Sun-News.

The dead animal was taken to the town dump and was not tested for rabies because no humans or pets were injured in the incident, but Nance said the fox showed all the signs of having rabies, the Sun-News said.

But Tuesday's incident is considered the eighth confirmed case of rabies in a fox and the second attack by a rabid fox on a human since the first reported case in Silver City on Feb. 23, the paper reported.

There also have been a half-dozen or so unconfirmed cases where a sick or dead fox has been found in or around Silver City, the Sun-News said.