Sunbathing Hednesford mother bitten by fox

A mother claims she was bitten by a fox as she lay on a sun lounger in the garden of her Hednesford home.

Lisa Pearce, aged 42, felt an animal tug her hair as she was sitting with her three-year-old daughter Holly but thought it was her pet cat Puss.

When she realised it was a fox she tried to shoo it away, but the animal became aggressive and sank its teeth into her head.

She managed to shield Holly from the attack and the fox fled after former teacher Ms Pearce hit it in the face.

But when she put her hands to her head she saw she was bleeding.

"I thought I'd been scalped. It was so painful and I was hugely shaken up," said Ms Pearce.

"I took Holly inside, terrified it would come back and attack her."

Ms Pearce, whose home backs on to parkland in Granary Close, needed hospital treatment for scalp wounds. She took antibiotics to counter any diseases carried by the animal.

It is not the first time a person has reported being attacked by a fox. In March, civil servant Seb Baker, 29, was attacked by a red fox as he walked to his home in Kent home from the supermarket.

He told how the fox, which had been sitting on a kerb at the side of the road, followed him into an alleyway and leapt at him, circling him like prey and trying to snatch his shopping bag filled with food.

Eventually, Mr Baker resorted to offering the animal his loaf of garlic bread and the fox scampered off.

Despite reports, not everyone is convinced that foxes randomly attack people. The RSPCA says foxes do not attack people unless they are provoked.

Earlier this year, BBC Springwatch presenter Chris Packham moved to defend foxes, stating he did not believe accounts of them attacking humans. He said fears the animals had "gone bad, attacking everything", were without foundation.

By Shaun Jepson