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Police rescue a fox in a fix
Martinsville Police Patrol Officer E.C. Stone catches a fox with its head stuck in a jar Friday. The jar was removed and the animal was released. (Contributed photo)
Sunday, July 15, 2012
By ASHLEY JACKSON - Bulletin Staff Writer
The Martinsville Police Department didn’t catch its average criminal on Friday. Instead, officers apprehended a gray fox with its head stuck in a jar.
Dispatchers received a call around 3:30 p.m. Thursday from someone at Lorrie’s Little Lambs on Clearview Drive saying there was a gray fox with a jar on its head behind the day care center.
E.C. Stone, a patrol officer with the city police department, responded and said he found the fox lying on its side and having trouble breathing.
When Stone walked closer to the fox, it ran into a kudzu patch further behind the day care center. Stone saw what looked to be a den in the patch and figured that was where the fox had gone.
Stone went back around 5:30 p.m. and didn’t see the fox anymore, he said, adding that he couldn’t walk into the patch because the kudzu was about 20 feet tall.
He returned to the day care center around 10 a.m. Friday to find the fox — with the jar still on its head — sitting on the retaining wall. That time, as Stone walked up, the fox didn’t try to run. It was almost like it was wanting help and surrendering, Stone said.
After Stone caught the fox with a catch pole, city patrol officer Jonathan France put on gloves and got the jar off of the fox’s head. The jar wasn’t tight on its head and was easily removed, so officers did not have to tranquilize or sedate the fox, Stone said.
The fox was lucky to not have died overnight due to lack of oxygen inside of the jar, Stone said, adding that the fox’s head was wet with sweat and the animal couldn’t breathe well after France removed the jar.
The officers then placed the fox into the back of the animal control truck and released it into a nearby field on Liberty Street, Stone said.
“I’m just glad it wasn’t a skunk,” he said with a laugh.
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