Brick Workers Rescue Baby Foxes From Storm Drain

BRICK, NJ — A pair of baby foxes were freed from a storm drain in in the Laurelton section of Brick thanks to the efforts of a veterinary office and the Brick Township Public Works Department.

The babies were discovered Wednesday in the storm drain near the Laurelton Veterinary Hospital, by a client who's also a neighbor of the hospital, said Kathy Daly, manager at the Laurelton Veterinary Hospital.

"We always see the mom fox," Daly said. But on Monday, the staff noticed something odd: the mother was hanging out in the parking lot during the day — a time when she's usually less visible.

On Wednesday, the staff knew something was really off when the mother fox walked right past staffers while they were treating a client's pet outside.

"Usually she runs when she sees us," said Jennifer Cwiklinski, one of the veterinary technicians.

That's when the neighbor saw the two babies in the storm drain.

One of the staffers tried to catch the young foxes with a rabies pole, Daly said, but that was not successful, so they called the township police, who requested help from the public works department.

"They were amazing," Cwiklinski said. The men — identified as Mark Peterson, Jerry Medolla, and Rob Montanye by township officials — removed the storm drain covers and one climbed in to see if he could get them, but the young foxes stayed out of reach. They put boards into the storm drain nearest to the veterinary hospital to help encourage the young foxes to climb out.

"We were throwing canned cat food down, hoping they would come out to eat it" so they could capture the babies with a net, she said. Cwiklinski, at the recommendation of a friend who's involved with wildlife rescue, played the sound of a mother fox calling to her babies, hoping that would entice the young foxes to come out. One would come out for a little bit, but not far enough to attempt a capture.

The entire time, the mother fox was sitting nearby, watching the group work to try to rescue the babies, at one point even sitting in the middle of the road, Cwiklinski said.

"Our other tech, Megan, tried to go to her, but she ran off," Cwiklinski said.

After a couple of hours with no success, the public works crew had to move on with its day. They had to replace the storm drain covers along the street for liability reasons, but there was one on the veterinary hospital's property that they were able to leave uncovered, and the public works crew set up ramps so the mother fox could retrieve the babies.

"They put that orange fencing around it, and we put our recycling cans around it too," Cwiklinski said. "I was so worried I came back twice (during the evening) to check on them."

Thursday morning the public works crew was back. They reopened the drain and checked it. The babies were no longer in the drain, she said, and it appears the mother fox had retrieved them.

"We just wanted to say THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts to everyone that came to help especially the Bricktown Public Works Dept and Brick Township Road Dept for all of their efforts yesterday and today!" the veterinary hospital staff said in a post on Facebook. "We had 2 baby foxes stuck in a storm drain and they immediately came out to help!!! They spent a lot of time here trying to figure out the best way to get them back to their mom safely. We are happy to report after the amazing men from the Road Dept came this morning to lift the grate and climb in to check that babies are OUT!!!! They are safe with their mom and we cannot wait to see her with them walking in the woods again."

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