Sunnyside parents David and Jane Harvey are now pushing for a coordinated baiting program after their three-year-old son was attacked by a fox on their property last week.
Mrs Harvey said her son Tom was lucky to escape with only stitches.
“In another 30 seconds or a minute, it could have killed him,” she said.
“It was absolute horror. This is the worst thing I’ve seen in my life and I’ve seen some bad things, but when you see this to your own child, I just don’t think it can get any worse.”
Mrs Harvey said her husband David was eventually able to scare the fox away before it caused any more damage.
“Normally foxes don’t touch people,” she said.
As such, the Harveys are pushing for a coordinated fox baiting program and hoped nearby landholders would become actively involved.
“The government doesn’t put money towards controlling foxes. We’re hoping to use what’s happened here to do something about that,” Mrs Harvey said.
New England Livestock Health and Pest Authority’s Tenterfield ranger, Andrew Davidson, said foxes were not a declared pest and this would contribute to the lack of government funding.
“April is the time that we encourage landholders to bait for foxes because that is the mating season for foxes,” Mr Davidson said.
“We are very interested in contacting landholders to do a coordinated control program,” he said.
The pest authority was hoping to establish a fox control group in the Sunnyside area.
Mr Davidson said they had issued 1080 poison to the Harveys as well as placed a cage on their property in an attempt to catch the fox that attacked their son.
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