11/02/13….Thame fox expert ‘flummoxed’ by report of baby attack

FOLLOWING wide-spread national media coverage of an alleged incident where a fox entered a house and bit part of a baby’s finger off, a local fox expert expressed her doubts about such reports.

Penny Little, who runs Little Foxes wildlife rescue centre at Great Haseley, near Thame, told ThameNews.Net today:

“As someone who deals with foxes on a daily basis, I am very disturbed by the latest claim of a fox having allegedly entered a house and bitten a baby on the finger.

“In defence of the foxes I can only say that I find this story impossible to reconcile with any fox I have ever encountered. Foxes are extremely highly strung and timid animals, not ones to face danger boldly or aggressively. To enter a strange house would be an almost unbearably frightening experience in itself for a fox, and to be shortly afterwards confronted by a screaming woman would result in the fox going into a complete panic, knocking ornaments etc over in its frantic attempts to escape from danger.

“However, allegedly, the unnamed woman who has claimed this story says she had to kick the fox and grapple with it to get it to release its hold on the baby, whose hand was, it is claimed in newspaper reports, halfway down the fox’s throat! None of this makes any sense whatsoever to me based on my wide experience of fox behaviour.

“There are numerous claims made by people about urban foxes, eg they are tame, they are mangy, they carry disease. Urban foxes are not unafraid of humans, they are just accustomed to living in closer proximity with humans than their country cousins. Feeding foxes does not make them tame, it just allows a fox to become tolerant of a situation in which it is benefiting with no dangerous consequences having resulted – in other words, it is habituated to coming into a garden, perhaps quite close to a human being who is providing food, with the assurance (from its own experience) that that human is not going to attack it. Should that human, however, overstep the mark and make a sudden move, or approach too closely, then the fox will bolt at once.

“Some foxes in both the towns and the countryside can and do suffer from mange, which is a horrible condition for them to suffer, but can be easily cured. It is a parasitic condition, not a disease. Foxes are not disease ridden animals, and although I have handled many foxes and fox cubs over the years, been ‘peed’ on, ‘pooped’ on, bled on, even bitten once or twice, I have never suffered any ill effects whatsoever. They are generally speaking healthy and resilient animals.

“Predictably, some people are again calling for urban foxes to be killed, but we all know there are many people with a vested interest in wanting people to hate and fear foxes (hunters and “pest” controllers in particular), and there are also credulous people who believe everything they read in the newspapers, and do not make rational judgements.

“Unless we see evidence that this latest allegation is substantiated by facts, I will remain completely flummoxed by the claims which have been given such inexplicable prominence in the media this weekend.”

PHOTO: One of Penny Little’s patients receives treatment for an injured paw