The headline literally screamed for jokes. “Aggressive fox caught near US Capitol,” the headline said Washington Post on Tuesday. In fact, the right-wing television station Fox News sometimes seems a bit out of control. And the old fox Donald Trump can also be trusted to do anything: has he tried to storm the Capitol again? But now the sad end of the story followed: the fox, or as it turned out later, the vixen, is stone dead. But from the beginning.
On Monday MP Ami Bera crossed the park at the Capitol. “Suddenly I felt something hit my leg from behind,” Bera told a journalist. He thought of a dog. But as he turned to fight back with his umbrella, a fox fled. The Californian discovered two bite holes in the trouser leg. The sock remained unharmed, as did the skin – but Bera, a doctor, had his rabies vaccination refreshed: Bites from wild animals are not to be trifled with.
More victims reported immediately, which made it clear: a fox chose the hill on which the most powerful parliament in the world resides as his palace. This called in the Capitol Police, responsible for protecting Parliament and its buildings. On Twitter, she warned of “aggressive foxes” and let the veterinarians swarm out. The people of Washington were unsure: should they now be afraid of the fox? Or side with him like the new Twitter account @thecapitolfox?
“Caught,” the police tweeted just a few hours later in a very cool way. The pictures show, however, that the parliamentary police officers were only watching when things got serious. Two colleagues from the capital unit had to tackle the problem, locking the animal in a carrying cage.
Meanwhile, school children made drawings for the “poor fox”. “Today I was forcibly removed from my den,” wrote @thecapitolfox. “I am innocent.” Others complained that lapdogs were overfed by rich politicians in the Capitol, but that an honest working fox would be arrested immediately if he provided his daily bread.
Wildlife is rife in Washington because the rivers are bordered by sprawling national parks where white-tailed deer, raccoons and wild turkey can be seen, with the rare occurrence of a bobcat. A few months ago, several zebras escaped in the vicinity of the US capital, and the last two were only caught five months later.
Squirrels, Canada geese and rabbits romp around the Capitol, the White House and the monuments, and there is always at least one burrow on the site. Problems with the various animals are rare, apart from the many rats. Luckily, they have natural enemies: rodents are on the foxes’ diet – but there are now several fewer foxes roaming around the Capitol.
On Wednesday, the city government said the attacker was a vixen with several puppies, which were also captured. A total of nine bites were reported to authorities. The vixen was therefore “humanely” euthanized in order to examine her for rabies. Rightly so, as it turned out: she carried the virus. In the USA, the pathogen is found in around six percent of the wild animals tested; Europe, on the other hand, is largely free of rabies.
The authorities left open what will happen to the puppies. If they are suspected of also being infected, the same fate is likely to befall them as the mother animal. The mourning phase has already begun for her on Twitter. Hundreds of thousands have watched the commemorative video, which shows the beautiful vixen prancing proudly through the parks in front of the Capitol.