6-24-07
This female red fox considered a west Denver neighborhood it’s home. She had set up a den and was raising two pups. Local residents often fed her, and this fox was such a community regular that she had even been nicknamed “Foxy” by the local children. Up until Sunday, her biggest crime had been snatching a pair of leather gloves from a local resident doing her yard work. But that day, for no apparent reason, Foxy attacked, biting a toddler nine times.

Two-year-old Jasmine Estrada was playing with her two older sisters in front of their home in the 3700 block of West Third Avenue when she was bitten. The animal hadn’t shown any signs of aggression before the incident. But that day it attacked, biting the child seven times on her arm and twice on her face. Jasmine was treated for her injuries at a local hospital and released the same day to recover at home.

“We got scared because we didn’t know what was happening,” said Jasmines father, Victor Manuel Estrada, who didn’t initally see the attack because his view was obscured by a tree. “But then I saw that my little girl had been bitten. If it hadn’t been for our neighbor, we wouldn’t have found out what was happening,” Estrada said. He and the neighbor chased the fox away, who escaped through the family’s backyard.

The attack caught local residents by surprise. “Her name is Foxy, and she’s tame as hell,” remarked Robert Calkins, one of Jasmines neighbors. “She’s raising two kits, and they don’t cause any problems.” Other residents described the fox as not being skittish or scared around people-more like a wandering neighborhood pet than a wild animal.

Jack Murphy, director of Urban Wildlife Rescue, A Colorado nonprofit group, said that foxes don’t have a reputation for biting people, because they usually run from human contact. He estimated that there were thousands of foxes living in the metro area. News of the attack had people calling his office both to report fox sightings, and at the same time urging him to intervene to try and save Foxy from being destroyed.

Neighbors reported that the animal was seen in the area again just a few hours later. Animal Control experts eventually tracked down the animal and shot it three days later, on Wednesday night. Brain tissue tests would be done to make sure the animal didn’t have rabies, which isn’t likely. As Doug Kelly, director of Denver Animal Care and Control noted, there hasn’t been a report of rabies in Denver for decades.

About the Fox that Bit Jasmine: The red fox is usually about 3 feet in length, weighing anywhere from 9 to 11 pounds. It feeds off rodents, rabbits, and birds. It’s habitat is usually woodland and wetlands on the plains, but it also resides in forest-edge communities in the mountains. Denver Animal Care and Control receives about 700-800 reports of wild animal bites such as this each year.