Foxes - are you a lover or hater (or in between) ?

[Mustardmit]

I aim this mainly at posters in urban areas.
Personally, I like them - I like the sounds they make, the look of them, their habits, the fact that (most) cats co-exist with them.
My solution to them tearing into bin-bags is to wash anything that smells 'foody' before throwing it away and placing any compost/left overs into open containers that they will eat from. Any left over food I have to deal with goes under the "fox tree" here where I live.
MM

[slinkycat]

Used to get the odd fox on the open ground across the road, never saw them but sometimes heard them at night. Don't seem to be any urban foxes here now though, since they built a big housing estate there.
Nothing against foxes at all, but if one got my hens I might think differently!

[jno]

I don't leave food or rubbish out for them, so they import it into my garden. They use the lawn as a toilet. They are not my friends. It's just as well for them that machine guns are not readily available in this country.

[webbo3]

I often cook a packet of cheap sausages and cut them up and put them down the end of the garden for my local urban foxes, quite often we see the parents bringing the young round for a feed.

We did use to have loads of urban foxes here in Bristol but the mange killed loads off but their numbers are increasing, I think its great to see a bit of wildlife in your street.

Dave.

[Dee Sa]

I feel very sorry for them,some have babies to feed and have to scavenge for their food in all weathers, especially now we all have wheelie bins not plastic bags as before. however I do not leave food out because we have two dogs and they go mental when they know the fox is around and you have to think of waking the neighbours.

[Sandy-Wroe]

I saw one in Chlorine Gardens Belfast a few months ago. It's an area almost in the centre of the city.
I like them.

[horselady]

I do like them especially the cubs, but like everything else that needs to eat, they have a side I hate, such as the one that slaughtered all except one of a litter of piglets on the children's farm near here. Piglets were born one day, nearly all gone the next.

[smudge]

I adore foxes.

I live near the town, but we still have some around here. In fact, I was looking out of the bedroom window at 3 in the morning some time back & watched a large fox trot past our house. I wondered whether he'd been in the local pub after a lock in & was on his way home!

[smudge]

P.S. It's human nature for them to eat whatever food they can find, including chickens, pigs & the like - although very sad & frustrating for the owners.

[paddywak]

I quite like them, I often see them when I'm walking Max and tho he's not too happy with them they don't really seem a deal bothered and last year my niece who lives just up the road from me was over the moon when the foxes who lived somewhere on the railway embankment that backs on to her garden started bringing their cubs onto her lawn. We live in the country and I've seen what a fox can do but after all they cann't help but follow their nature and I personally think the world would be a poorer place if I didn't see Reynard trotting along every now and then

[LoftyLottie]

I have lived in the middle of rural nowhere for 30 plus years and have only seen a couple of foxes in all that time (plus several dead ones on the road). It seems that foxes are seen more in towns that out here in the country.

If I lived in a town I would probably do as Mustardmit does. I would find it hard to hate any animal although we do have to kill the rats that come in off the fields in the winter.

[LoftyLottie]

When we first moved in here all that time ago, a fox took my blind cat in the early spring. The winter/spring of 1979 was much harsher than this year and I would imagine the vixen was desparate to feed her young. She came back for our other cat, but we managed to frighten her off.

In spite of this, I still like foxes. They were only doing their best to look after their families - which is more than some humans do!!!

[mccfluff]

i quite like them, bit eerie whe you hear them scream, and the smell urghhhhh

vibes i've told you before - they're only chewy if you roast them straight off, you have to poach them roast

[woofgang]

I don't mind foxes, they have as much right to be here as most human beings and more than some. I would rather not have them in my garden as my dear doggies love to roll in their muck and the smell is indescribable.

[tigerlily11]

I live in a house that backs onto fields. I wish I had one coming in as it would sort out some of the rats we get coming in. They are a real pain in the neck as they along with the mice get into my garage and eat the bird food. I love foxes.
Good for you for having a fox tree. they are one of the few wild animals we have left and the only wild dog. With out them the we would have more rats and mice than ever.
There are few other natural predators in the UK. They also help to keep the rabbit population down as well.
But I expect there are some hunters who would tell you they come into the cities and *** babies from their prams. I actually had a fox hunter telling me that while she tried to justify her so called sport.
They avoid humans were possible. They only come if we tempt them.

[lucca]

You wouldn't love foxes if you'd seen one kill a dozen chickens in minutes, then slink off, leaving all the carnage - so the idea of them just doing it to feed their young doesn't hold. However, I can't abide fox hunting - you'd never believe it's illegal.

[LoftyLottie]

Tigerlily, we are in the same boat as you with the rats. They come in off the fields all round us, and having a drainage ditch behind us makes it even worse. It's a constant battle all winter.

And like the majority of country dwellers, I abhor fox hunting (and the Countryside Alliance who do not represent us)

[Avatar]

They dont kill a load of chickens and slink off. They kill them all with the intention of taking them off and burying them somewhere safe or eating or passing to pups etc. They can only carry one off at a time. But often, after carrying one or two off, the human owners of the chickens have discovered the remaining victims and the fox then doesnt come back.
Thats my understanding and it seems more logical to me than the fox just going on a killing spree for the hell of it.

[tigerlily11]

Lucca My uncle had a hen house and he had foxes get in to it. So I have seen it. So don't give me that old excuse for hunting. My uncle just made adjustments to the hen house.
Now a fox does what he does because he's an animal. We are supposed to be civilized so what excuse do fox hunters have to chase a fox for miles until it can run no more and then let a pack of dogs rip it to pieces? Come on lets here it if you consider yourself civilized.