Fox attacks 3-year old Swiss girl in bed

The attack took place in Bülach, just north of Zürich airport,The mother of the child, Isabel Becerra, left the window overlooking the garden open and the shutters open at the bottom to allow cool air in, she told Tages Anzeiger newspaper.

“I wanted to close the blinds fully before I went to bed“, Becerra said. She was with her husband in their bedroom when they heard their daughter Grace screaming. “I ran to the child’s room immediately.“

Becarra turned on the light and found her daughter in bed bleeding. As she looked around, she saw the back of an animal with a bushy tail disappearing under the shutters.

Grace said she cannot remember the fox. Scratches and bite marks on the girl’s face and hands were treated in Bülach hospital and later in the children’s hospital (Kinderspital) in Zürich, where she got a tetanus injection and was given antibiotics.

“Luckily, her injuries were not too severe“, the mother said.

Philipp Wieland, a member of the hunting club in north Bülach, has never seen such a case. “Foxes are by nature shy“, he said. “ However, locals who feed the foxes make them tame. Also cat food left outside attracts foxes.“

On Monday hunters shot two foxes in Bülach on the other side of the train tracks. Already this year hunters shot five foxes in the area, of which 33 percent is used for agricultural purposes. Much of the land is forested, with only about 30 percent settled.

Wiegland told the Tages Anzeiger: “That is a lot of fox shootings for a built up area. We cannot say if the problem has been solved. When we get a tip, it is often difficult to shoot the foxes, because there are people who protest. In cases of doubt, the animal must be allowed to live.“