Girl, 13, attacked by fox which ripped open her tent while she camped with friends in garden
By
Dan Newling
Last updated at 11:09 PM on 29th July 2010
A schoolgirl has told how she was attacked by a fox as she camped with two friends in her parents' suburban garden.
Bethany Blackburn, 13, was rushed to hospital after the animal slashed a hole in the canvas and bit her foot.
Before it struck it had spent more than two hours clawing at the sides of the tent but Bethany and her friends had treated its attention as a bit of fun.
Terrifying attack: Bethany Blackburn was bitten by a fox as she camped in her back garden with her friends
Fear: Bethany (centre) was with her friends Amie, left, and Sherice, right when the attack occurred
Their amusement turned to terror, however, when it lashed out.
Bethany screamed and blood started to gush from her left foot but the fox remained in the tent.
It sat, snarling, in the porch area, only turning tail when
Bethany's mother, who the desperate schoolgirl had alerted on her
mobile phone, switched on the kitchen light and came out to
investigate.
The shocking incident happened on Sunday night in a suburban garden in Long Ditton, Surrey.
Wound: The bite mark on Bethany's foot
It comes after nine-month-old twins Isabella and Lola Koupparis were
left with 'life-changing' injuries after a fox attacked them in their
cots in East London last month.
Bethany's mother Melanie said yesterday that her daughter and
friends had previously spent up to a week camping outside, and had
never had any problems with foxes.
Wild: The fox had been clawing at the tent for two hours before it struck
She said: 'Foxes have been coming into the garden for the past year, but normally they run away as soon as you see them.
'To be honest, we never really thought of them as dangerous. That's
all changed now, though. I've got a four-year-old boy and now I keep
the back door shut all the time. And no-one will spend the night in the
tent again.'
Bethany and her two friends, Amie Clark, 14, and Sherice Perry, 13,
had eaten supper indoors and did not take any food out to the tent with
them. The only drink they had was a bottle of water.
Nonetheless, the fox was fascinated by the girls' presence, and from
around 10pm started to sniff around the tent. At that stage the girls
were unworried but later, as Bethany was dozing off, she heard it
rustling again.
'The next thing I felt was something biting my foot. It clamped its
jaws down and bit through my sock into my heel and the top of my foot.
'It was so painful, I was shaking with fear. There was blood everywhere. We didn't know what to do.'
Mrs Blackburn, 34, added: 'I heard about the two babies who were attacked by a fox, but I didn't pay too much attention to it.
'I always thought that foxes were not dangerous. But now I'm frightened to let my children out in the garden.'
All of these stories in the news about foxes attacking people are hyped up in order to promote a lift on the fox-hunting ban.
- Daniel Brown, Blackheath, London, 29/7/2010 16:06
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