Fox attacks woman in Mahopac
Gray fox, which has been caught, chased the woman into her house.
MAHOPAC – A gray fox attacked a woman in her yard on Agor Lane yard Saturday night, then chased her into her house, police said.
The fox came out of the woods and bit the woman on her left ankle, then clawed and scratched her right ankle, drawing blood, according to a statement by the Putnam County Sheriff's Office.
She ran away into her house, but the fox chased her inside, the statement said.
She and her children left the house and closed the door, with the fox still inside, the statement said.
The fox will be euthanized and tested for rabies, said Kricket Dyckman, of Mahopac-based Dyckman’s Wildlife Control.
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“It is unusual for a fox to run into a house, but I’m not going to speculate it has rabies because I don’t know,” Dyckman said.
Sheriff's deputies, paramedics and the state Department of Environmental Conservation were on the scene after responding to a 911 call from the woman who was attacked. The initial report said it was a coyote, not a fox, that had bitten the resident.
Dyckman’s was called to the house on a report of a coyote attack, but upon arrival they found the fox in the kitchen – hiding in a roughly 5-inch space behind the cabinets. It kept sticking its head out from behind the cabinet, Dyckman said.
The woman bitten was treated for her injuries and taken by ambulance to Putnam Hospital Center. Her condition wasn’t known Sunday morning.
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