On Tuesday April 2nd, a soft cry could be heard from the bottom of a large drop outside a terraced house near Greenwich Park. A young fox cub paced around the floor frantically searching for its mother and for a way out, attempting to climb the 10 feet-high wall surrounding it several times before resting behind some wooden planks. People walking past had heard its cry, looked down, felt a moment of sympathy and carried on with their lives. It seemed that this young cub was to spend the last few hours of its life behind the shelter of a few rotten pieces of wood.
Until some samartians arrived.


A group of onlookers watched as the fox attempted to escape before rescuing it with a hat and a rescue ladder. After previous attempts of lowering down a plank of wood failed, two members of the small crowd retrieved a man from the local market with a ladder, which was then lowered down the drop. A teenage girl then climbed over the fence surrounding the drop and scooped the cub into a hat before bringing it back up to safety. A member of the RSPCA then arrived to take the cub away to a local fox charity.


Katherine Mielniczuk, 15, was the daring teenager who compromised her own safety to rescue the animal. ‘As soon as I saw the fox, I was determined to help it – I didn’t want to let it die. After all, it ended up trapped through no fault of its own, so why should it have had to suffer? At first I was apprehensive climbing over the fence as I wasn’t sure if I would be bitten or otherwise attacked, but the cub showed no threat and went willingly into a stranger’s hat and had no objections to being held. I feel like I did a good deed and I’m grateful that there are people in the world who still have some compassion for foxes that are often seen as violent pests.’


Foxes are stereotypically viewed as aggressive animals who thrive in urban areas and cause chaos. In February this year, a young baby lost a finger to a fox that entered a family home in Bromley. Although animals experts have said that it is ‘extremely unusual’ for foxes to attack children, many people believe that there should be a cull. Very rarely do these people think about how all foxes do not hold an angry temperament and are naturally shy creatures that will only attack when provoked. Besides, seeing a fox cub that is barely a few weeks old is enough to melt anybody’s heart.