What has happenned to the UK since I left?
A baby attacked by a fox inside the family home?
I had never heard of a fox entering a house before(chicken house, yes)
Maybe the cute little foxes don't wear plaid waistcoats and talk to the other woodland creatures at all!

Saeed, you don't really read the Sun do you?
I'm dissapointed!

Laugh or not its very sad for the little girls and their parents. Apparently one of the girls has suffered very bad facial injuries which may disfigure her for life.

This is not the first instance of it happening either, as I recall a similar incident a coulple of years back.

If you've ever seen a fox or a small terrier have the "red mist" come down and "rag" on an object, you'll know the potential damage they could do to a small child in this sort of situation..

quote:

Originally posted by Pete E:
Laugh or not its very sad for the little girls and their parents. Apparently one of the girls has suffered very bad facial injuries which may disfigure her for life.

This is not the first instance of it happening either, as I recall a similar incident a coulple of years back.

If you've ever seen a fox or a small terrier have the "red mist" come down and "rag" on an object, you'll know the potential damage they could do to a small child in this sort of situation..

I agree Pete, it's no laughing matter. A problem with wild predators living in an urban environment is that they lose their fear of man as they associate human beings with food. It's not long before they go from associating humans with food, to it beginning to dawn on them that humans are food.

Foxes here in the states don't get as much press as bigger animals which understandably scare adults more, like mountain lions, bears, and 'gators. But they can still do a number on a small child, and I'm sure kill one if given the opportunity. We've been having several fox attacks in the news. I'm going to have to somewhat contradict myself and my "no laughing matter" rule in this case as the kid who was attacked was more than up to the challenge:

quote:

Aberdeen, N.C. — An 11-year-old boy and a 22-year-old man say they were attacked this week by foxes in southern Moore County.

The attacks happened near the intersection of Sycamore Street and Midway Road in Aberdeen.

Talon Thomas, 11, said he was bitten and scratched by the fox while walking home from school Tuesday.

“He bit me on my leg, and then I just picked him up, and I just hit his head against the road and he started kicking me in my head," he said.

Talon said he kept the fox pinned down and tried to keep him quiet so he wouldn't alert other foxes.

“He kept kicking his legs up and I thought his whole family was going to come after me,” he said.

Talon caught the fox and took him to his parents. The boy received a series of rabies shots as a precaution.

I bet it's the last time that fox attacks a kid who's first name is "Talon." But it could have been a lot worse, with no room for humor, had the fox decided to attack someone smaller and younger.

What you call the "red mist" we call less colorfully prey fixation. This is a problem we have more of when dealing with coyotes. Once they target a child, they keep trying to attack even when an adult intervenes. Actually, coyotes are capable of killing even an adult, as they demonstrated in Canada last year. One fox or one coyote on its own doesn't pose a lethal threat to an adult, but the difference is coyotes will form packs. In one very built up place I used to live, but bordering a national forest and with plentiful green belts, I recall a lady and her dog were attacked by 11 coyotes which were luckily driven off in time.

Unfortunately, even the authorities don't take the threat these animals pose to children very seriously. While living in that same place, I once came across a coyote trotting up the middle of the street at noon on a weekend. I was driving at the time, so I followed it. Any coyote traveling through the middle of the neighborhood on a warm spring day, past people washing their cars and working in their yards, is a coyote that's lost all fear of man. Sure enough he trotted right up to the local elementary school and flopped down in the shade to watch the kids play in the schoolyard. So I called the local police and reported it. There was a pause, and the dispatcher asked "you want us to send out a squad car for a coyote?" And I said, "no, I want you to send out a squad car for the kids playing in the schoolyard."

They just don't take these things seriously until someone is maimed or killed. Then, they over-react.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...layground-party.html

A second one in Brighton UK.In the USA we would assume a fox who attacks people to have rabies .
Fox hunts in the UK cities ? PETA would complain about that .

Rabies is absent from the UK thank goodness, these foxes just have no fear of people allied to a constant food supply provided by the same.

This sort of thing then becomes rather inevitable.

There are however pest controllers who will shoot urban foxes, however usually only in large suburban gardens and from the elevation of an upstairs window.

quote:

Originally posted by Ghubert:
There are however pest controllers who will shoot urban foxes, however usually only in large suburban gardens and from the elevation of an upstairs window.

Couldn't agree more. I just checked my records and one really small bit of land in west London has net 21 foxes alone in the last 2 months. Fast food shops, littering teenagers and ill informed city folk who feed them regularly all contribute. There is however a growing feeling amongst the residents I speak to of mistrust for our foxy friend and I've noticed that less people recoil in horror and disgust if I mention in passing my chosen field. More often than not, they want a cage in their garden because something pooped on the lawn.