Mother’s horror as fox creeps into home and bites baby’s head

A mother-of-two has described how a fox crept into her home and bit her baby daughter's head as the pair slept.

Carly Clarkson, 37, had fallen asleep while feeding three-month-old Josephine, only to be woken by the animal sniffing her face. She then noticed blood around her baby lying beside her.

Ms Clarkson screamed before realising the full horror as she saw four, bloody puncture wounds on her baby's head.

She snatched up Josephine and chased the fox to the top of the stairs, before darting to her one-year-old daughter’s room to check she was alright.

Carly, who had left the back door to their home in Watford, Herts., open, said: “Imagine waking up and your child's blood is next to you. It was absolutely horrifying.”

She said the four puncture wounds on Josephine’s head “looked like a dog had bitten a football”.

She rushed to Watford General Hospital at around 9.45pm on Thursday (August 20) where it was confirmed there were no fractures to Josephine’s skull or concerns around the baby's brain.

Carly says it may only have been due to the position they had fallen asleep in that the wounds were not to the face or an artery in the leg.

She suggested the fox may have been trying to pull her daughter away with it.

Now, Carly has been left scared to use her garden or leave doors open with her daughters around.

She added: “I feel absolutely violated. I don’t feel safe in my home with two young children.

“Clearly there is an issue of either the same fox or multiple foxes being fed or just really acclimatising and becoming comfortable with people.”

Even as they left to take their daughter to hospital, Carly and her husband saw a fox - which may have been the same animal - coming right up to them at the front door and seemingly trying to get in.

CCTV from the garden shows what they believe to be the animal wandering around moments before its entrance.

They reported what happened to Watford Borough Council and investigated what they could arrange privately, but all that could be offered were £300 pellets which may deter foxes.

Carly claims the brazen foxes in the area are becoming “out of control”, and has been in touch with The Fox Project for help.

She said: “I was very lucky that we came away with just needing some tetanus shots and some antibiotics.

“I would hate to find out that in a week or in a few weeks’ time someone else isn't so lucky.”

Trevor Williams, founder of The Fox Project, says that incidents like this are extremely rare and there hasn't been one in over a decade.

He said: "It's pretty clear to me that this incident involves a young cub.

"Experienced adult foxes would never behave in this way and will always avoid putting themselves in such a vulnerable position.

"We're at the point of the year when annual dispersal is taking place and this year's fox families are breaking up - cubs being around four and a half months.

"For most, their natural instincts kick in quickly, and they will avoid immediate human proximity.

"But there will always be a few who find themselves wandering through open doors into homes or businesses as they investigate unfamiliar territory.

"If undisturbed, as this particular cub appears to have been, their natural curiosity will oblige them to check out everything at leisure and, in this case, it looks as if it's tested out its sharp young canines on the tender skin of a baby.

"As alarming as this must have been for the baby's mother and, thankfully, resulting in only superficial injury, incidents involving foxes are so rare that the last time we heard of anything similar was somewhere around 2010 / 2012."

The charity founder has said to protect yourself it is advised to keep doors closed and use non-toxic repellents.

He added: "Obviously, taking care to keep doors closed, despite the extreme weather, is a basic precaution.

"But anyone concerned about foxes regularly sharing their environment can reduce activity and discourage them very easily by use of safe, non-toxic mammal repellents easily acquired from garden centres and hardware stores."