Ada residents lodge complaints about neighbor's unlikely pet

By Madison Bennett | MLive

A group of residents in Ada have taken complaints of an unlikely animal disturbance to the Township Board.

Neighbors claim the culprit, a pet arctic fox, is being kept in an outside enclosure at a home in the 6000 block of Rix Street.

Neighbor Linda Andrews approached the Township Board during the public comments section during a meeting on June 12 to address the issue. She attended the meeting with two other residents from the same neighborhood who back her in her complaints.

"I want this animal removed from the neighborhood; I want it written that you can't house exotic animals in Ada because it's not fair," she said.

She told the board that she had been trying to file a complaint for nearly a year, first contacting the township, then both animal control and Kent County, and was ultimately sent back to the township.

"An arctic fox has an obnoxious bark and it barks for about six months out of the year during their mating season," Andrews told the board.

She also complained about the smell and concern about the possibility of contracting rabies from the fox, if bitten.

"My yard smells like a zoo, it sounds like a zoo," she said.

While Andrews had been working for some time to see some type of action taken, the fox's owner, Alexandra Asbury, said that she had already received multiple visits from animal control and had been contacted by the township, but not directly by any neighbors.

Asbury obtained the fox that she named Koda in late July of 2015 from a man who breeds and raises animals of the sort when the fox was about eight weeks old.

About six months later, Asbury received her first visit from animal control on a complaint from a neighbor of an animal in distress, she said.

"It's got kind of a weird noise, so if you didn't know what is was, I guess it could kind of sound like an injured dog or something," Asbury said.

She allowed animal control in the backyard to check on Koda and view his enclosure and was told that they would approve it and speak to the person who had issued the complaint.

Two weeks later, Asbury said she received yet another visit from animal control on another complaint from the same person, this time about the smell.

Again, Asbury said, she was cleared.

Following the last animal control visit, Asbury then received a letter from the township asking her to contact officials there, and after speaking to someone, answered questions and told them about her visits from animal control.

Ada's animal ordinance defines an animal as a "dog, cat, bird, reptile, mammal, fish or any other dumb creature" and does not specifically prohibit keeping a fox as a pet.

Andrews brought up the article on vicious animals in Ada's code of ordinances while addressing the board, but the township does not deem an animal as vicious until it "has bitten a person or domestic animal without molestation" or "gives indications that it is liable to bite any person or domestic animal without molestation."

Asbury said she has never seen Koda as a danger to anyone around him and described him as friendly in nature. She does not take him on walks outside of the backyard of her home because, she said, he can easily get out of his harness.

Since her last contact with both animal control and the township, Asbury said she has yet to receive any further complaints.

This post originally appeared June 23, 2017 on MLive.com.