A Foxy Tale

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A unique sighting

Last week we discovered something unique to Riga. We looked into a rumor of a building with a fox sculpture attached. When we located the building, we were surprised to see how large this fox actually was. 


As you can see by the picture on the left, it's several times my size. It's standing on a portion of a building but crawling down toward the ground. 


There wasn't much of an explanation as to why this particular animal was built in this particular location. Well, there was a sign posted on the wall, but it was written in Russian and Latvian, so I couldn't read a word of it. 


Building next to the fox 
The neighborhood where we found it wasn't very memorable. In fact, it was rather run down, like many old Soviet neighborhoods are in Riga. 
Old Soviet buildings


None of the surroundings explained why the fox was located there. Just down the street, we spotted a tall Soviet era building that is known in Riga as "Stalin's birthday cake." You can see why it has that nickname, even if it's a science research building in Latvia. It's built in the typical Soviet era bombastic style. 

Stalin's Birthday Cake

Photographic occasion
Even though the surrounding buildings had no draw, the fox itself did draw other interested people taking pictures. After all, it isn't every day that you see a fox climb on a building. 


When I returned home again, I did some online research about the fox. It turns out that the title of the structure is "Born for Freedom." It was actually constructed to take a stand against fur farms in Europe. 

Born for Freedom
It was created by Aleksandr Marinoha and his father Olegs. Aleksandr is a student at the Art Academy of Latvia. Together with more than 100 people, they created this sculpture out of thousands of metal wires and hemp lines. 


No small matter
A date wasn't specified for the construction of the sculpture, but it sounded very recent, stating that a ban on the fur industry was now in effect in the mink fur farms across several countries in the European Union. 


It was a rather impressive discovery on a cold morning in Riga. I'm wondering now if this will be a permanent tourist attraction in our city. 


Information taken from Giant Fox Takes Stand Against Fur














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