Maine Man Fends Of Foxes With Weed Whacker And Cane

A 79 year-old man out in the yard thought he had tripped over something.  He was right.

J. Collins of Woolwich knew that a den of foxes lived nearby, because he had seen them all the time.  Apparently he didn't give them much thought until last week when he was out in the yard with his weed whacker.

Collins told WGME TV in Portland, "I felt something I was tripping over, and I looked down and it was a damn fox trying to jerk my leg. So I kicked him off, and he came over and grabbed the other one. Then I fell down and I'm trying to get the weed whacker between me and him."

Collins smacked the attacking fox on the nose with his weed whacker and it ran away.

But the fun wasn't over.  A second fox came bolting across the yard at him.

"The second one come straight at me, and I mean just fast,” Collins said. “I had a cane here and I picked it up and just started hitting the hell out of him."

Like the weed whacker, the cane worked as well and the fox took off in the opposite direction.

The man was bitten a total of 15 times.  He received medical treatment including going through the process for rabies.

Collins told the media if he hadn't been wearing his muck boots he would have been worse off.

Now he along with the neighbors are worried about further attacks because they have seen even more foxes in the area since.  The town of Woolwich even issued a warning for "aggressive foxes."

There are two breeds of foxes in Maine, the Red and the Gray.  Both are pretty agile, as the Red Fox can jump up to six feet and the Gray can actually climb trees.  The Red Fox is found all over Maine, with the Gray found mostly in southern and mid-coast Maine.  Both more or less hunt for their prey during the night and at dusk and dawn.  A fox who is nursing their young will be seen during the day according to the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

Obviously, the best way to keep wild animals away from your property is not to feed them in any way.

In the rare case of interacting with an aggressive wild animal you can call the Bangor dispatch center at 1-800-432-7381.