An animal charity is asking sports clubs to raise netting off the ground after a fox almost died as a result of becoming entangled in netting from a football goal today.
Rescuers Chris Riddington and Laura Carrick from East Sussex Wildlife Rescue & Ambulance Service (WRAS) responded to an emergency call to the fox at 8am Sunday morning.
“When we arrived on site, we could see the fox straight away, and it was well and truly entangled. Luckily it was not able to move far as easier than I was expecting to secure” explained WRAS Duty Rescue Co-ordinator Chris Riddington from Eastbourne, “ I was able to cover the fox’s head and cut the netting to stop it pulling on the fox’s neck. At one point the fox appeared to stop breathing but luckily I was able to respond quickly enough and encourage it to breathe again.”
Once secured in an open topped cage, rescuers cut away at the netting which was not easy. “It was clear the fox had been caught for some time. This is one lucky fox not to have been attacked by a passing dog.” Said Chris.
After consulting WRAS’s Vet the fox was transported to WRAS’s Casualty Centre at Whitesmith for emergency treatment.
“We are pleased with how the fox is responding and we hope he will make a full recovery. Casualties like these which involve invisible ligature wounds must be monitored very closely as the surface layers of skin can break down and turn into open wounds depending on how long the pressure has been applied for” added Chris.
Every year WRAS gets called to around a dozen wildlife casualties caught in netting on sports fields, like cricket tunnels, football goals and discarded netting dumped at the side of sports fields, where hedgehogs, foxes, badgers and deer have become entangled. “We would advise people to cable tie off the ground netting or to even remove the netting completely when not in use. Even by raising netting just 12 inches off the ground is enough to stop most casualties except deer. If deer regularly visit sports fields we would advise netting is removed completely when not in use” said WRAS founder Trevor Weeks MBE.
We would like to thank the caller, their son as well as officers from Eastbourne Fire Station who stopped to help.
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