Humane Society Awarded Custody of Seized Foxes

A Pasadena Municipal Court commissioner has refused to return eight Arctic foxes to an Altadena woman who was arrested last January for keeping the wild animals in her back yard.

Commissioner Warren C. Haas on Tuesday awarded custody of the foxes to the Pasadena Humane Society, where they have been living behind a chain-link fence in a concrete-floored kennel for the last nine months.

Steve McNall, executive director of the society, said he would try to place the gray-and-white kits, which are native to Alaska, in a zoo or wildlife education program.

State game officials seized the animals on Jan. 24 from the home of Cheryl Moraga, 36, who said she had purchased two adult foxes as pets from an animal broker about five years ago. She said she never intended for the foxes to breed, but when they did, she said she cared for the kits as if they were her own children.

Although the foxes are not endangered or particularly rare, they are classified as exotic animals in California and are illegal to keep without a permit, state game officials said.

Moraga, who was also charged with possessing marijuana after game wardens saw about a dozen plants growing in her back yard, was fined $235 and sentenced to one year probation.