An escaped fox, whose owners thought it was a dog, has been caught and sent to a zoo after terrorizing a Lima neighborhood, Peruvian authorities said Tuesday.
The medium-sized, eight-month old Andean fox named Run Run wreaked havoc on small farms in the Comas neighborhood, eating ducks, chickens and guinea pigs much to the chagrin of its owners’ neighbors.
“Following a patient pursuit, the Forest and Wildlife Service (Serfor) managed to catch the Andean fox, called Run Run, while it wandered close to the Comas district,” said the Ministry of Agrarian Development and Irrigation in a statement.
Serfor officials used a tranquilizer dart to catch the fox after throwing it food on Monday night, the ministry said.
Run Run is in good health and has been taken to a Lima zoo, where the fox has quickly become the star attraction.
A local newspaper said Run Run devoured 15 guinea pigs and six chickens over the weekend alone.
Another newspaper spoke to a neighbor who said she had befriended the fox and had been feeding it grilled chicken.
The fox’s former owners paid 50 soles (close to $15) to buy what they thought was a Siberian Husky for their daughter at a back street animal market where they were conned by animal traffickers.
“They said it’s a wolf-dog, but we didn’t know it was a fox. It ate normally, like any dog, but as it was growing it was clear that it wasn’t a dog,” Maribel Sotelo, who bought the animal for her daughter, told America Television.
The government says the Andean fox is a victim of wild animal trafficking, a crime that is punishable by three to five years in jail.
