Article written by Molly Powell
Originally published by Independent UK (Feb 5, 2024)
At the end of 2022, Nicole began using her foxes as therapy foxes.
A woman who rescued eight foxes from fur farms that now sleep in a twin-size bed in her home now uses them as therapy foxes in women’s shelters and youth rehabilitation programmes and claims many “resonate” with the foxes’ “story of survival”.
Nicole Navarro, 43, who works part-time on a tourist boat and lives in Key Largo, Florida, with her eight foxes, Libby, Louie, Reef, Kai, Coral, Jasper, Ridley and Penny, began rescuing the animals in 2020 after she got laid off in the pandemic.
Nicole says all of her foxes were “deemed undesirable” by fur farmers, as they had “some sort of physical defect”, such as missing tails or toes, but claims this is what “ended up saving their lives”.
Nicole’s foxes have 24/7 access to a room in her house, with luxuries such as air conditioning and a bed, as well as a huge enclosure outside with “enrichment activities”, and Nicole spends most of her days off playing with them, and feeding them their diet of chicken, duck, rabbit and turkey, which costs 800 dollars (£625) a month.
At the end of 2022, Nicole began using them as therapy foxes, where she puts them in a harness, allows people to stroke them and tells the foxes’ stories of going from being bred to kill to living a happy life, which she finds “extremely rewarding” as she has “experienced intense trauma” in her past.
Credit: Collect/PA Real Life
Nicole said: “When I take the foxes to the sessions, I find that the people really resonate with the foxes’ story of survival.
“Often these people are victims of domestic abuse and in a way, have been in a similar position.”
Nicole first fell in love with foxes in 2018 when she was volunteering at the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office in Key West, Florida, which had an animal farm.
She explained: “In 2018, two foxes were surrendered and even though I had a lot of experience with different species of animals throughout my life, I grew up on a very large horse farm in western Pennsylvania, I had never had up close personal experience with foxes.
“And I just sort of became completely infatuated with the species and then started learning more about their backgrounds – most foxes here in the United States can be traced back to fur farming and it’s illegal to capture, obviously, wild animals out of the wild and turn them into pets.”
From then on, Nicole started contacting fox rescue centres throughout America about potentially rescuing them in the future, and in March 2020, one of her contacts asked her if she was ready to take some foxes that were being surrendered from a fur farm.
Nicole thinks her foxes have improved her mental health. Credit: Collect/PA Real Life
She said: “I quickly scrambled to raise money because at that time, the Florida Keys completely shut down since we’re tourism based so I got laid off, and it became a bit of a lockdown project.”
Two months later, she welcomed Louie and Libby, foxes from a fur farm, into her home and since then, she has adopted another six foxes.
She said: “All of the foxes were deemed undesirable meaning the fur farmer would not have been able to kill them and sell them because they had some sort of physical defect.
“So some of the foxes I have don’t have tails, some of them are harmed by their mother at a very young age so they’re missing parts of their tail and Reef is even missing some toes.
“So all the foxes I have here have some sort of thing that was deemed imperfect by the farmer, but it’s actually what ended up saving their lives.”
Nicole keeps them all in two large enclosures outside and they even have 24/7 access to a room in her house.
Nicole first encountered foxes when she was volunteering at an animal farm. Credit: Collect/PA Real Life
She said: “They have a twin-size bed that they sleep on and there’s no electrical wires or anything they can chew on or harm themselves with.
“It gets pretty warm here so the room is air conditioned… and they all have outdoor enclosures with ramps and platforms and enrichment activities, toys and tunnels.
“So they are really given everything they need to use the natural instincts they have – they’re not domestic in any way, shape or form.”
Nicole explained her daily-routine to look after her furry friends, saying: “I get up fairly early and I do a spot clean of the enclosures.
“I feed them a little breakfast – they eat rabbit, duck, chicken, turkey, I do offer them fruits and vegetables, but they rarely go for it.
“I sit back there with them, I interact with them, I play with them.”
At the end of 2022, Nicole began using her foxes as therapy foxes.
Nicole started rescuing her foxes in lockdown. Credit: Collect/PA Real Life
She said: “I reached out to a women’s holistic trauma recovery programme and just sort of proposed the idea of bringing a fox to meet the women and sharing the foxes’ stories of survival – going from certain deaths to living on an island in Florida.
“When I take one of my foxes into the sessions, I put him in a harness and a little leash, but I don’t train him on a leash.
“I tell his story and then welcome people to pet him or play with him, but it’s amazing, as soon as I put the harness on him his personality changes – he’s so calm and relaxed and we’ve never had any issues with him.”
From there, Nicole has expanded her sessions.
She said: “The Florida Keys Children’s Shelter saw what we were doing with the women and asked if they could start bringing children here to meet the foxes and hear their stories and so that started officially last year.
“Since then, we’ve expanded all the way down to Key West with another programme called Project Lighthouse, and it’s basically a drop in centre for youth runaways… anyone that wants to come in and meet a fox and hear his story and hear a little bit about my story are more than welcome to.
Credit: Collect/PA Real Life
“We also go to a live-in temporary shelter for women, and when I tell the fox’s story, people are usually really moved.”
On how it feels to help others in her community, Nicole said: “It’s extremely rewarding for me and that is because in my own personal life’s journey, I have experienced intense trauma.
“So, me being able to work through that in the past, and now be able to give back to people that are struggling with some of the very same things, is extremely rewarding.
“I don’t ask for a fee from any of these facilities, it’s really my way of giving back and especially in this community that’s been so extremely supportive of me and the foxes since day one.”
Looking back on her experiences, Nicole thinks the foxes have also helped improve her mental health.
