A young boy and his mum saved the life of a tiny fox cub who got his head stuck in a glass jar in London.
Five-year-old Hayk Schliesing was playing in the garden on Saturday (17 April) when he spotted the stricken cub and alerted his mum, Anoush Begoyan-Schliesing.
Anoush said: “Hayk saw the cub squeeze under the fence from our neighbour’s garden and had his head stuck in a large glass jar. He came to get me and I rushed out to hear the poor little thing making horrible suffocating noises as he ran out of air.
“I managed to catch him, hold him down and break the jar with a rock so he could breathe again. I blocked him into a corner of our garden and called the RSPCA for help.”
Inspector Harriet Dailliday went to Bromley to help. She said: “Our general advice is that members of the public should monitor wildlife from a safe distance as they can bite or scratch if they’re in distress. However, Hayk and Anoush’s actions most definitely saved this little cub’s life.
“Anoush managed to break the end of the jar so he could breathe but the remaining body of the jar was still tight around his neck and wasn’t budging even with lubricant. He was extremely distressed and I was worried about leaving him and transporting him to a vet when I remembered a tool I had in my van.
“I used the special window hammer to tap carefully on the glass twice against the rim and managed to remove it from his head. Thankfully once he was free he seemed uninjured but his breathing was quite raspy so I took him to South Essex Wildlife Hospital for a check-up and monitoring until he’s ready to be released.”
The cub will remain in care while he’s rehabilitated and, once old enough to survive in the wild on his own, will be released.
