Foxes

[LatteLady]

Just before I went out to supper tonight, found my next door neighbour in tears coming up her front path... her cat had been savaged by foxes. From the sounds of it, Ralph a sleek cream cat with a ginger tinge will need to be put down as the fox has ripped open his under belly.

This is the third incident in our area over the last week, another lady was walking her dog and had to get between the fox and her dog and then got attacked too.

Am I unreasonable to think that there should be a method of culling this urban menace?

I don't believe you! My cat is scared of worms and yet it chases foxes. They aren't shy though, one got in my neighbour's van.

I think Peter Andre hating was a big thing somewhere on MN Alisvola?

Can't remember which thread it started on, possibly had a spinoff clique thread/group of posters?

Foxes can and do kill cats, we lost one to this just 3 weeks ago. No doubt it was them, they have a den in the neighbours garden.

Different canid, I know, but the typically timid coyote had become more emboldened over the years, as the urban sprawl encroaches onto its territory. People have become sloppy, leaving food out etc. and it's definitely had an impact.

articles.courant.com/2012-03-09/news/hc-ct-coyotes-killing-dogs-0312-20120309_1_large-coyote-coyote-population-small-dogs

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coyote_attacks_on_humans

There is no question foxes have got bolder over the years. I do wonder if the hunting ban made a difference. When hunting was around they were chased and so had reason to hide whereas now they don't. Any thoughts?

I don't know TDH but the ones in my MIL's garden, where our poor cat got killed, are bold as brass. I was out looking for her, shouting at the top of my lungs in broad daylight and they just carried on wandering around the garden. They are fearless here.

Today in the snow there were 2 sets of paw prints. Too big to be cat. More like dog prints but I don't have a dog.
The garden bloody stinks of fox piss.
And in the summer there were 2 adults+ 2 cubs on the neighbours garages at the bottom of my garden.
I threw pears (from my tree) at my wooden fence to scare them.
They just glare at me with their spooky yellow eyes.

I know they would love my 2 guinea-pigs (who have a Fort Knox style house). Which is why they prowl round.
I'm a mild mannered vegetarian type and I make sure they can't get my guineas.
But I would shred one if it tried.

TinyDancing possibly the ban on hunting has made it easier for the weaker ones to survive too.
They only dead ones now are run over.

And people like my neighbour who feeds them .

How many birds do you think a hunting cat kills in it's lifetime?

No idea Narked, I don't and never have had a hunting cat.

My SIL has one that hunts. It's prey of choice is mice/voles/frogs. It manages about 5 a week during the summer.

I would get behind a shoot pidgeons and seagulls cull, foxes around here are like others have said very timid and run away as soon as they hear you coming.

Should clarify - my cat was a house cat. Never ever been outside. My MIL accidentally let her escape.

Judging by how she was found, she was killed for sport rather than food. Both her breeder and our vet were unsurprised to hear of a cat being killed by a fox, both having seen it numerous times before.

is it just city foxes that are like this because my country cats practically live outside all summer and they've come to no harm from a fox.

(ps I know the thread kind of moved on but I refuse to give attention seeking pricks any attention )

It sounds very unlikely that a fox would attack a cat or dog.

Even if it did, we can't just kill of our native fauna because a few pets get bitten.

Ha ha haaaaaaaa @ Bluestocking ....wolf HA ! You share my humour.

70isalimitnotatarget that is just bonkers !

One of my cats gets maybe 3 birds a week and 2 mice/voles a day. The other will catch one mouse a month but doesn't kill it, just gives it to me

I guess the only thing that kills them are cars, other foxes and diseases, so yeah, the weaker ones aren't getting weeded out. Don't badgers hurt more pets? They can be quite feisty beasts.

My cats hunt. One of them is very outdoorsy and I think mostly lives on the animals he catches.

I think keeping cats indoors their entire lives is cruel.

Animals eat other animals,as do we (a lot of us). Circle of life and all that.

There is no question foxes have got bolder over the years. I do wonder if the hunting ban made a difference. When hunting was around they were chased and so had reason to hide whereas now they don't. Any thoughts?

I wouldn't have thought it had time to have much effect on urban fox behaviour. Anyway I think most people would agree that it's a good thing that we don't still chase an animal to a very violent death in the name of sport any more.

I had a fox wander in to my kitchen last year, I shouted at it, it ignored me then threw up on the kitchen floor, it then wandered off...I was really shocked.... Worst bit..... The vomit was crawling with worms, which I had to clear up....yuck...

YANBU. Urban fox population is way out of control, councils will not deal with it the way they will other kinds of pest and, when food is short, foxes are perfectly capable of killing something like a cat. Horrible creatures.