Wednesday 13 March 2013

Yet another fox attack on a baby

Recently a fox crept into the bedroom of a Bromley baby, mauled his hand and bitten a finger off.

The four-week-old baby was reportedly dragged from his cot by the animal on a normal Wednesday afternoon in February. His mother told how she had heard her son screaming, rushed in and found the fox's teeth clenched around his hand dragging him out of the back door!

Other press articles keep talking about this being a wake up call to the fact that London urban foxes are a threat and dangerous, it's not the first time it's happened, not just to a baby but children and adults too have been victims of fox attacks:

There was a scare in Bromley last October when a family reported a fox had broken into their home and seemed to be heading towards a baby's bedroom. Joseph Gillinder, who found the fox in his hallway. said: "It is one thing to have the mangy horrible creatures waltzing around the neighbourhood but one actually came into my house while my back was turned for just a minute while putting out the bin. I'm not normally for any kind of culling, but when it comes to situations like this, I think a culling might be in order."

Families in Hackney, east London, were famously advised to keep their doors locked in the aftermath of one of London's most high profile fox attacks in 2010, when Isabella and Lola Koupparis, nine-month-old twins, were mauled by a fox as they slept in their cot. The severity of the injuries to their arms and face led to a national debate on the dangers foxes could pose.

In 2003, a four-year-old girl was bitten as she played in her garden in Tufnell Park, north London.

In 2011 Tammy Page, an ambulance driver, said a fox stole into her house through a cat-flap before biting her finger off.

Angler Andrew Thomas needed 26 stitches to his face last November after a fox bit him while he slept in a tent near Uckfield.

I'm sure my fellow Bromley mums will recall a fox attacked a girl aged nine in Sidcup, a few years ago. The horrified girl woke to find the fox biting her several times on her feet.

Just down the road from us in Dartford, 14 week old Louis Day who was attcked and bitten on the head by a fox in his own home.

Jessica Brown, aged 4 was bitten on her arm by a fox in her bedroom in North London.

Margaret O’Shaughnessy, 88 was attacked by a fox in Edinburgh


Infact I actually blogged about the fox attack on Isabella and Lola Koupparis when they were just 9months old and was disgusted at the lack of compassion and accusations that it was a dog instead that were given to this family. I was also downright shocked by the number of people who seem to think its ok to put the life of a fox before that of defenceless human babies!

Urban foxes are not nice, they are dirty scruffy and diseased creatures who do attack humans on some occasions, thankfully it's still rare but I think most London people have had a a scare of some sort, I myself have been circled and growled at by a fox and rescued the neighbours cat from another fox!

And incredibly, even after the growing list of fox attacks, there are still people who feed them and encourage these disease ridden, dirty wild animals to enter their homes and think that it's ok that foxes attack babies!!!!

I wonder if this really will be the "wake up call" seeing as all the other fox attacks seem to have been conveniently brushed under the carpet and each time it happens there is shock and horror and claims that its a first and foxes don't act like this.

A few weeks on and it's already forgotten news and I live very close to where this happened and there's been no change or control in the large number of foxes here. There was one in our garden yesterday sleeping in my children's wendy house, I have to check carefully before we go out to play in our own garden.

Emma in Bromley. X

1 comment:

  1. I completely agree with you. As a mum the thought of this happening to any child terrifies me!

    ReplyDelete

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Emma x