Escaped pet fox euthanized

Fairborn resident angered that city did not check permit to find animal’s owner.

Fairborn resident Chloe Kristensen said the city euthanized her pet silver fox, which ran away from home, without checking permits to find its owner.

“All they had to do was take 10 seconds out of their time … I think I would have been the only (permit holder) to pop up. They would have found me so quickly,” she said.

The fox, named Valo, dug a tunnel out of its enclosure and under Kristensen’s fence, escaping into a neighborhood on North Central Avenue early Sunday morning.

A state wildlife officer called Kristensen on Wednesday to say the city of Fairborn had killed the fox.

Valo was found Monday night in a resident’s rabbit trap, unharmed at that time. The resident later told Kristensen that he called the city, which sent its contracted animal removal agency, Advanced Wildlife Management, to pick up the fox. He said he never imagined that it would be killed.

The city of Fairborn and Advanced Wildlife Management officials declined to comment for this story.

Kristensen said city officials told her that Advanced Wildlife Management called the Ohio Department of Natural Resources before euthanizing Valo. ODNR reportedly told the agency that silver foxes are not indigenous to Ohio, and that the animal was probably a pet. When Advanced Wildlife Management scanned the fox for a microchip and found nothing, however, the city told Kristensen that ODNR approved euthanizing the animal.

But state wildlife officer Matt Hunt said no one from District 5 was contacted until Wednesday.

“Everyone I’ve talked to has sent me somewhere else,” Kristensen said. “No one wants to take the blame.”

Kristensen said she does not understand why no one checked to see if there were any fox permit holders in Greene County.

In May, Fairborn came under fire for killing feral cats. About a dozen people addressed City Council with concerns regarding Advanced Wildlife Management. As a result, the agency stopped using a gas method to euthanize cats, and instead took them Greene County Animal Control. Kristensen she hopes Valo was held to the same standard, but she has not yet been told where he was taken or how he was euthanized.

Kevin Cherry of Cherry’s Barber Shop in downtown Fairborn referenced the feral cats, saying city officials have shown that they are “in a hurry to kill” rather than save animals.

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