A Peruvian family whose pet dog started chasing and eating neighbors’ chickens and ducks were shocked to learn that their 3-month-old Husky was actually an Andean fox.

Maribel Sotelo, a woman from the city of Comas, in Peru, had no choice but to call the Forest and Wildlife Service and ask for assistance with her pet dog, Run Run, after neighbors started complaining that he was the reason that their poultry and guinea pigs – which are edible in Peru, by the way – were going missing. Sotelo had also noticed the three-month-old “Husky dog” chasing other animals around, but now her neighbors were asking to pay for the damages, so she notified the authorities.

“My son bought him because he wanted a pet,” Maribel told RPP. “He looked and behaved like a dog when he was little, but as he grew up we started noticing that he was different. We have had him for more than three months, he cost my son 50 soles ($12.50).”

When Maribel’s son brought Run Run home with him, they noticed that he was injured, so they nursed him back to health, and, until about a fortnight ago, everything was normal. He behaved like a dog, played with other dogs, but then he started acting strangely. He began chasing and eating guinea pigs, chickens, ducks around the neighborhood, and soon people started complaining.

“He’s not aggressive, he doesn’t attack us or other people, but he’s hurting us financially because the neighbors charge me for everything he catches and eats,” Maribel Sotelo said, adding that she asked the National Forest and Wildlife Service to take the animal away.

Apparently, Run Run the Husky was actually an Andean fox, and his attitude around poultry and guinea pigs was just natural instinct kicking in. Peruvian media reports that the fox will now be released in its natural habitat.

 

Interestingly, this is not the first time that people have mistaken wild animals for dogs. We once wrote about a family that unknowingly raised a bear as a dog, so this sort of thing isn’t entirely unheard of.