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Fox attacks shake up Brockton neighborhood

E-mail|Link|Comments () July 23, 2009 02:53 PM

By Jazmine Ulloa, Globe Staff

BROCKTON -- Animal control officers are hunting down two foxes involved in three attacks on people this week in a neighborhood on the city's north side, Supervisor Thomas DeChellis said today.

Officers believe they may be guarding a den of pups, and the department is investigating the gender of the animals and whether they are rabid, he said.

"I have been working for 15 years in animal control," DeChillis said. "But this type of incident has never happened."

Officers are searching for a silver fox involved in two attacks and a red one that bit a third person last night, DeChellis said. But many grey foxes also have a lot of red fur, and there may be only one fox involved, said Marion Larson, a biologist with the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife.

A silver fox bit the lace of Isabella Robbins's in-ine skate Monday night just as she was reaching home with her mom and 3-year-old sister, she said. Her mother Jennifer Robbins, who was walking in front of Isabella, dragged her daughter as she screamed for help. A neighbor came out and scared the fox away before the girl was bitten.

"I am never wearing those skates again," said Isabella, 9, who remains afraid to play outside.

Mary Seaver had been spreading mulch in the corner of her front garden, when a silver fox jumped out of the bushes and latched on to her ankle. Seaver screamed as she grabbed it by the scruff of its neck and pried its mouth open, she said. The fox scampered off into the bushes.

"I looked down and copious amounts of blood were spilling from my sneakers," said Seaver, who immediately called 911. "I was up shivering in fevers all night."

That night, a few houses down the street, Mary Ellen Nutting, 47, had been in her backyard garden picking some vegetables for a friend, when she heard scratching on the other side of her wooden fence. Nutting, who had seen a red fox crouching around her yard earlier, and her friend took off running toward her house. The fox chased them and bit into Nutting's ankle, while her friend ran inside, she said. Nutting began beating it with the watering hose stick she had been holding, which was the size of a golf club, until it dashed away.

The symptoms displayed by the foxes are unusual and could mean the animals are distempered or have an aggressive form of rabies, Larson said. A member from their department may pay a site visit to the city tonight or early tomorrow morning to help with the search, she said.

"It is very difficult to catch a wild animal even if the attacks are happening in the same neighborhood," she said.