{"id":102682,"date":"2022-04-06T06:33:40","date_gmt":"2022-04-06T11:33:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/?p=102682"},"modified":"2022-04-06T06:33:40","modified_gmt":"2022-04-06T11:33:40","slug":"red-fox-terrorizes-humans-in-us-capitol-rampage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/2022\/04\/06\/red-fox-terrorizes-humans-in-us-capitol-rampage\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Fox Terrorizes Humans in US Capitol Rampage"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"VOA \u2014 WASHINGTON \u2014 <\/span>Being outfoxed in Congress usually means losing a vote on an amended resolution or being too late for the doughnut line in the Senate cafeteria.<\/p>\n

So, spare a thought for the politicians and staff at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, where police were scouring the grounds Tuesday amid reports of a highly aggressive red fox trying to take chunks out of humans, including a Democratic congressman.<\/p>\n

Officers warned that they received multiple reports on Monday of people “being attacked or bitten” by at least one aggressive canine at the seat of U.S. democracy, in a statement first reported by none other than … Fox News.<\/p>\n

“One encounter was at the botanic garden, and a second was on the House side of the Capitol near the building foundation,” the U.S. Capitol Police said.<\/p>\n

“This morning, USCP received a call about a fox approaching staff near First and C Street. This fox may have a den in the mulch bed area … and there is another possible den near the perimeter of the Russell Building,” the police said.<\/p>\n

Police said animal control officers were responding to the incidents and “looking to trap and relocate” any foxes they find.<\/p>\n

“Foxes are wild animals that are very protective of their dens and territory. Please do not approach any fox you see,” the police cautioned.<\/p>\n

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\"FILE<\/div>\n<\/div>
FILE – Rep. Ami Bera, D-Calif., speaks on Capitol Hill, March 10, 2021.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Online political magazine Punchbowl News reported that Representative Ami Bera had to be rescued by police late Monday after squaring up to a fox that had just bitten him in an “unprovoked” attack.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t see it, and all of a sudden, I felt something lunge at the back of my leg,” Bera, a physician by profession, told Punchbowl. “I jumped and got my umbrella.”<\/p>\n

The 57-year-old Democrat wasn’t hurt but agreed “out of an abundance of caution” to get a series of rabies shots.<\/p>\n

“I expect to get attacked if I go on Fox News, I don’t expect to get attacked by a fox,” he told Punchbowl.<\/p>\n

Witnesses flooded social media with sightings, with several reporting seeing it munching on a squirrel or merely enjoying the sun in the Senate gardens, its bloodlust apparently sated.<\/p>\n

‘Infurrection’<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fifteen months after a violent mob stormed the Capitol to disrupt the certification of the presidential election, one wag even referred to the ongoing animal threat as an “infurrection.”<\/p>\n

Inside the Capitol, reporters dropped the usual barrage of economic questions at the weekly lawmakers’ press conferences in favor of a breathless interrogation about possible action on the four-legged menace.<\/p>\n

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell ignored the inquiries, but two-term Senator Joni Ernst was proud to report that she had spotted the animal, without revealing how close the encounter was.<\/p>\n

Red foxes \u2014 the most common of several North American species \u2014 are regularly found in towns and cities but tend to avoid people, according to the city’s environmental department.<\/p>\n

They typically eat insects, small birds, squirrels and rabbits, and are not known for their predilection for legislators or their intimidated staffers.<\/p>\n

The species has thrived during the pandemic, according to wildlife experts in the nation’s capital.<\/p>\n

“Less ambient noise, less traffic, less interference. … Right now, life is better for them,” Bill McShea, a wildlife ecologist at the Smithsonian National Zoo, told the online DCist magazine.<\/p>\n

“If there’s an upside to COVID, it’s on the wildlife,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VOA \u2014 WASHINGTON \u2014 Being outfoxed in Congress usually means losing a vote on an amended resolution or being too late for the doughnut line in the Senate cafeteria. So, spare a thought for the politicians and staff at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, where police were scouring the grounds Tuesday amid reports of a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":102683,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-recposts"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"en","enabled_languages":["fa","en"],"languages":{"fa":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102682"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102685,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102682\/revisions\/102685"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}