Topic: Bad Fox !!!!

[flossy]

   Well, we knew they were around  ---  a neighbour  I presume has lost her chickens,

   as we found a brooding egg in our garden, beige colour made of a hard rubber, the deep

   teeth marks showed obvious ' dog like '  holes, we are missing the distant ' chucking '  we

   would hear of a morning.       Foxes have been sighted by OH and a neighbour so I would say

   it's a cert that this 'deed' I found this morning  is down to them.

   Our local hedgehog, still young was getting on well --  no food was left out at night for obvious

   reasons,  found dead on our lawn, on her side and one leg missing.  Not eaten, not taken away !

   I searched a site that is involved with hedgehog preservation, who outlined the type of attack a fox

   will make---  they wait, behind the hedgehog until it uncurls then they pounce and catch them by

    a leg.

    I like Foxes  ---   in the countryside where they belong !!!

   

[Digeroo]

It is amazing just how many problems a fox can cause in a short time.

[flossy]

  Don't know what the answer is Digeroo there was a thread about foxes on allotments

  but can't find it,  The weather has been wet and dismal, I can't get out there and retrieve

  the poor thing.

  What is the answer ?  If anyone has any experience of foxes in thier garden and have a need to

   discourage them, please  me know,

   Leaving rubbish bags out for a week or more doesn't help ! students around our area , are oblivious of

   the collection routine here, not thier fault ---  landlords !

    Sorry to be soooo dismal , sad day,







  Jeyes fluid is banned, can understand that as the fumes effect wildlife, but foxes, badgers will avoid it!

   

   

[slyfox-mal]

im afraid there isnt such a thing as a bad fox its only doing what comes natural to it  its a wild animal
 it will always take the easy option and somtimes this involves our livestock .
 and as for the hedgehog they can be nasty also i have witnessed a hadgehog killing  a hen that was sitting a broodybox and also killing several quails

unfortunatly this is nature and  usually when a fox kills our livestock its not charlies fault its the fault of the  person in charge of the livestock  for not locking hens up at night or not haveing proper security  foxes do alot of good in nature  ie vermin control even eating slugs and snails

ps im not an anti hunting  person far from it  hunting vermin is my second  passion

[Geoff H]

Foxes will live anywhere they can get food and it is incorrect to think that they only belong in the countryside. The highest densities of foxes have been found in Bristol, because cities and towns privide more opportunities for food, so they can have smaller territories. I quite like having foxes around, though i have not seen them as much in our town since we switched to wheelie bins.
We are getting poultry soon and the first priority is to get a good house and also a fox proof fence. When the kids had a rabbit I knew it had to be kept where it was safe from foxes. i live in a town but they are part of the natural environment of the town.
I am fighting a (losing) battle against hordes of mice this year, and occassionally rats pass through. For the first time ever the local rabbit population has exploded to such an extent that the rabbits are now found throughout the town including my garden. Anything that eats meat is an ally as far as I am concerned. Sometimes foxes can be quite blase about people. I once came across a fox at the side of a driveway and we looked at each other from a distance of about 6 feet. I felt quite privileged to be able to do that. It was used to seeing people around but was still a completely wild animal.

[flossy]

  They did it again, aweek later, another young hedgehog   ---  not a weakling and

  would have got through the winter just fine.

  I understand about nature, dog eat dog etc .

  A lot of the resposibility towards wildlife is ours, dessicrating the natural habitat of

  wild creatures,  will drive them into suburbia and the refuse and rotting food that is left

  around that gives them a free meal and a good life.

  Foxes not eating the creatures that they kill is an issue I think, hens left dead and headless ?

  As I said before, I like foxes  ----

  ---  in the wild where they belong.

[Digeroo]

Once the hunting ban came I expected that the number of foxes around would increase, but I have not heard one all summer.

[Geoff H]

A fox is an animal and has no moral code and no concept of right and wrong.
It is completely at the mercy of nature and its natural instincts. If it sees something it might eat, it automatically kills it, even if it is not terribly hungry. A bit like some women let loose in a clothes shop. ;D
If the woman buys something she can not use straight away she stores it in the wardrobe. If the fox cannot eat it straight away it will often come back to the dead carcase and try to bury them so that it can come back later and retrieve them.
Most dogs let lose in a pen of sheep would do the same. They would go into kill mode and kill every sheep. They are not bad or evil, nature has programmed them that way. Dogs have to be trained out of that if they are to live with livestock.
As our towns and cities get greener we have to get used to sharing it with wild animals. In summer on sunny days I usually see buzzards soaring over my town, many cities have breeding peregrine falcons, I have water voles at the bottom of my garden. Nature has always lived in towns and cities. I am hoping one day that we will see red kites in our towns and cities as they used to be common in medieval cities.

[macmac]

A fox just broke into the garage (ok not fox proof)and "despatched "the grandchildrens rabbit :'( :'( :'(He wouldn't have made another winter as his body clock was ticking.... but sad nonetheless but I can't find it in me to hate the fox. can't change it so just have to move on but wouldn't contemplate offering that as a concept to my 8year pld granddaughter :(

[Robert_Brenchley]

I was once walking round the allotments with my daughter, who was seven at the time. She came running after me: "Dad! There is wolf!"

So I walked back with her, and it was a fox sitting on one of the plots looking at us. I haven't seen many for the last few years, since an outbreak of mange, and there are more rats than there used to be as a result. I'm all for foxes.

[woodybrown]

we have foxes in the garden and up our lotty ,there are more that live in school across the road .The man over the road keeps chickens and an old neighbour buys a pack of chicken thighs every day to feed them.Wehave dogs and that doesn't stop them  .We knew this would happen but are powerless to do anything about it now  god bless the hunting ban :P

[cornykev]

On the way to work the other day, I heard a noise and a fox shot across a garden, nuts the bloody life out of me, now we have wheelie bins they might have scratch around for their food, do they eat rats, I bloody hope so.  ;D ;D ;D

[Borlotti]

We had a fox watching our tennis match, the bowling green at Bush Hill Park Tennis Club has put an electric fence around it, but the fox was on the adjacent tennis court, having a laugh at the standard of tennis at night.  I often see them if I am walking home at night.

[SamLouise]

do they eat rats, I bloody hope so.  ;D ;D ;D

No, but I know a couple of guys called Gino & Stuart who might be interested ...  ;D

Sorry, back on topic!

[laurieuk]

We have at least 2 families of foxes living in the garden and adjoining wood but the sheep in the field have not been touched .We have plenty of rabbits as the foxes only take the sick and poorly ones.

[flossy]

  I doubt that we have any hedgehogs left round here now,

  --  found the 4th one yesterday,     :-\

[gardentg44]

I know through experience on this site that some people are not going to like what I'm going to say,
but who cares,
if a fox came into my allotment causing damage,or killing the chickens ,
id shoot it simple.
nothing against all foxes,just the rouges. :-X

[Unwashed]

I know through experience on this site that some people are not going to like what I'm going to say,
but who cares,
if a fox came into my allotment causing damage,or killing the chickens ,
id shoot it simple.
nothing against all foxes,just the rouges. :-X

Don't you think it might upset your fellow allotmenteers if you took your gun to the allotments, let alone started shooting the wildlife?  It hardly seems like a reasonable thing to do.  Don't you need the land-owner's permission to shoot?  I'm sure some kind of fencing would be a better way of dealing with a fox nuisance, because any fox will kill chickens, not just a 'rogue'.

[flossy]

  Oh dear, please don't think that I have any angst against foxes, even though they reduced

   me to tears when I had my lottie [ which I miss very much ],  I do feel though that we have

   created an environment that encourages foxes to live amongst us,  --  they are born to a way

   of life that is unnatural for them, yes, they can be cute to have around and many people feed them

   for the joy of seeing them in their garden  --  OK but they do carry desease, mange amongst them,

   so watch out for your cats and dogs health.

   17yrs in rural England, has given me the joy of seeing foxes in their natural habitat  --   wonderful

    --  and a privilege.    I hate to see these creatures scouring our dustbins, chicken pens and whatever

    else they can scavinge to stay alive, and that includes our urban/garden wildlife.

    I wish no creature any harm --  far from it,  but I believe it won't be long before the powers that

    be will call for a ' cull ', ---   you know '' elf and safety  '',   

   

   

[Robert_Brenchley]

I experienced people shooting (illegally) behind where we lived in Cornwall. It led to shot hitting the house while they blasted way. No way would I want to see people shooting on the allotments!