I was sorry to read of the fox attack on a baby in Bromley, but I wonder how it entered the house – this is winter, after all, and not a time when doors and windows are likely to be left open. 

I daresay there are, as Paul Reed says, lots of near misses.  But let us not get this out of proportion. According to wildlife consultant John Bryant there are 6,000 people every year hospitalised by dog attacks. 

How many more are injured but not hospitalised? How many potential attacks are prevented? While domestic cats are less likely to attack people, they wreak carnage on wild birds. 
I like cats and dogs but I do not encourage cats to stay around in my garden.

As for aggressive dogs, it is perhaps the dogs’ owners who are at fault. 

Whatever the numbers of animal attacks, they are slight compared with the numbers of people killed and injured on our roads (2,222 fatalities in 2009).

JULIET CHAPLIN
Sutton