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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Foxes

264 replies

LatteLady · 19/01/2013 23:08

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?

OP posts:
DizzyZebra · 20/01/2013 20:54

I don't care about Peter Connelly. He has fuck all to do with the hunt sabs. Like i said, agree or disagree with fox hunting. I don't give a shit. There are more important things, But you cannot advocate a group of criminal vigilantes without being a total hypocrite.

There are ways of doing these things without resorting to the HSAs tactics. They are a disgusting, pathetic little group of low life cowards - They're no better than the hunts. If one should be banned the other should be. They have no purpose other than to terroize and attention seek. They cause more fucking suffering than they prevent.

LineRunner · 20/01/2013 20:55

It's not for you to decide who are criminals, Dizzy unless you are a magistrate.

Oh wait a minute ...

inde · 20/01/2013 20:56

Yes, showing my true colours. Fuck me i'm a terrible person for admitting i'd defend myself against criminals.

I don't support the saboteurs but I've seen loads of cases of unprovoked attacks on them. Not the other way round. And yes your post did sound like you were glorifying the fact that they get assaulted.

Bluestocking · 20/01/2013 20:56

Calm down, calm down. Can we all try and remember what this thread was about? You all seem to have forgotten that it's about how much Peter Andre loves his cubs.
Punk, you are so right about foxes being the focus of a lot of anthropologically interesting beliefs and behaviour in the UK. As this thread so clearly shows ...

Punkatheart · 20/01/2013 21:03

'The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the ways its animals are treated

~ Mahatma Gandhi'

(1869-1948. Spiritual leader of India)

Bluestocking · 20/01/2013 21:04

I like to bash woolly knitted hedgehogs with this. Unfortunately, I'm quite shortsighted, and often end up mutilating a real hedgehog, completely by mistake, of course.

inde · 20/01/2013 21:04

AIBU to not really know who Peter Andre is and to not have any interest in him either. Smile

LineRunner · 20/01/2013 21:06

He is orange, inde and he really loves his cubs.

A bit like Raynaud, I expect.

Bluestocking · 20/01/2013 21:06

Not so much unreasonable, inde, more just lucky!

AgentZigzag · 20/01/2013 21:06

Love your posts Piglet Grin

Knitted hedgehogs accidentally getting under hammers has real media potential.

I presume you don't care about Peter Connelly in relation to this thread Dizzy, rather than you don't care what happened to him in a general way?

LineRunner · 20/01/2013 21:08

PigletJ, I just watched your youtube link. That 'fox and cat' [with two lucky magpies] is hilarious. The cat really doesn't give a shit.

DizzyZebra · 20/01/2013 21:10

Inde - There are wrong doings on both sides for sure. I won't deny that - I'm not glorifying it, But i do think the sabs bring a lot of it on themselves - Especially in the cases where they have no reason to be there.

If i'm going about my perfectly legal activities and some idiot comes legging it over in a balaclava and full camo, brandishing a potential weapon, yes i will react first and they will not come off better. Why would i stand there and wait to see what they're going to do with that weapon? Who would?

If they had honourable intentions they'd be dressed normally for a start and wouldn't be brandishing weapons.

DizzyZebra · 20/01/2013 21:11

Linerunner - Sorry, Did they make assault legal? If not, then i don't need to be assault to know they are criminals.

DizzyZebra · 20/01/2013 21:13

I'm going anyway before this gets personal, Bluestocking there was no need for that comment. I don't hunt or hurt anything. Drag hunting is completely different.

It's not my fault the law is pathetically written and was just a ploy to get votes from the slightly less intelligent among us. If it weren't they'd have at least written it properly and closed the gaping loopholes!

Sallystyle · 20/01/2013 21:14

My friend heard this horrible noise in her garden last year and went to investigate.. a fox was mauling her cat and the cat died.

It is very rare, but it does happen.

LineRunner · 20/01/2013 21:23

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

This was the original OP.

Yes, you are being unreasonable. For all the reasons given and attitudes revealed above.

NumericalMum · 20/01/2013 21:42

Yabu. Our cats and foxes all live happily together with squirrels, pigeons and all sorts of urban wildlife. Now I might feel less annoyed by this post if we could cull squirrels...

PessaryPam · 20/01/2013 22:31

DizzyZebra a minority view I am sure but I am on your side.

PigletJohn · 20/01/2013 22:40

you mean in favour of drag-hunting?

Springdiva · 21/01/2013 06:52

Sorry haven't read all the posts.

I can't see the difference between keeping a cat which maims and kills dozens of small birds and mammals in a year and keeping a pack of hounds which kills a fox every week for the winter months.

Just how is one right and the other wrong. Either both wrong or both right.

Or is it that townies keep cats and country folk keep hounds. And, sadly for the countryfolk, there are more townies than country folk.

RichManPoorManBeggarmanThief · 21/01/2013 07:09

They do cull them in Hammersmith and Fulham. There was an article in one of the Sunday papers a few years ago about Fox squads who go round at night and pick them off with a rifle

Punkatheart · 21/01/2013 08:34

Presumably illegal squads. Totally irresponsible to go shooting in a built-up area.

PigletJohn · 21/01/2013 09:47

Most unlikely to be illegal squads.

Punkatheart · 21/01/2013 10:23

The reason I say that is I can find no information about legal fox squads. I know that the council have no power to act.

Here are some interesting stats:

John Bryant, of the British Humane Wildlife Deterrence Association, has had a particularly busy few days, telling any newspaper that will listen that, in his 40 years? experience, he has heard of only two cases of supposed fox attacks on humans: one of the perpetrators turned out to be a cat, another a German shepherd (a dog, presumably, not a Teutonic herdsman).Others have pointed out that last year 5,221 people, including 1,250 children, were treated in hospital in England after being mauled by man?s best friend: the dog.

PigletJohn · 21/01/2013 12:34

in the parts of England where I've lived, anyone seen carrying or using a firearm in public is likely to be approached by police. Anyone who appears to be carrying or using one illegally is likely to be shot by police.