Kildare woman Josie Hillis (71) required twenty stitches in her face, arm and hand after being mauled by a fox in her own back garden. The wife of Fine Gael councillor Billy Hillis, was attacked by the fox in the back garden of their property in Dunshane, near Brannockstown.
Foxes have been troubling the area for a while with around twenty poultry and four of their peahens having been killed since Christmas. On Tuesday night, Hillis attempted to chase a fox away from a peanhen when she was attacked. The fox knocked her over, tearing at the flesh of her face and arm.
“The fox caught me unawares and I slipped”, she told Kildare Now. “It caught my face and I had to prise it’s mouth open. I read somewhere that if you blow into an animal’s nose it will release its hold. It worked long enough for me to throw (the fox) away but it came back and grabbed my arm. I was able to reach a stick and beat it over the head until it let go”.
She claims she was fending off the fox for around ten minutes before it finally ran away. Hillis received over twenty stitches on her hand, arm ear, lips and mouth at Naas General hospital. Billy Hillis suffered a heart attack the week before and was hospitalised in Tallaght at the time. Billy Hillis was discharged from Naas General Hospital yesterday after a pacemaker was fitted, and the couple are both recovering at home.