A Good Samaritan was passing by a pit of what appeared to be tar and realized something seemed off. They took a closer look — and saw a pair of glowing eyes staring back at them. They quickly deduced that an animal was stuck in there and called the RSPCA for help.
The pit of tar was actually thick heating oil that had leaked under an abandoned building due to a vandalized storage tank. The animal who was trapped turned out to be a fox, who must have fallen in and soon became almost completely submerged.
“This poor fox was totally stuck in the thick, tar-like substance and couldn’t move,” Helen Smith, an inspector with the RSPCA, told The Dodo. “We have no idea how long he had been there. It’s a miracle he was spotted!”
Smith was worried it might be a difficult job trying to free the fox from his predicament, but luckily she was up to the task.
“Only the fox’s ears, eyes and nose were above the oil line, but his body was completely stuck,” Smith said. “With some effort, I managed to pull the fox from the pit and took him straight to a local [vet], where the mammal was sedated and the huge clean-up job began.”
As the team prepared to begin trying to get the oil off of the fox, everyone was in shock. The poor animal barely looked like a fox at all, and the task ahead felt impossible.
“I’ve never seen anything like it!” Smith said. “The fox was covered in oil from head to toe, and it was so thick that it was a big job to clean it all off. The following day, the fox was still black but a little cleaner, and I was able to transfer him to RSPCA Stapeley Grange Wildlife Centre in Cheshire for further cleaning and rehabilitation.”
Getting the oil off took multiple days and multiple teams. After many checkups, it was determined that the fox was fairly young and is expected to make a full recovery, despite everything he’s been through.
This was the worst oil case the RSPCA had ever seen, but thanks to everyone’s hard work and dedication, the fox will hopefully be able to return to the wild very soon.
