To tell my neighbour to stop doing this?

[curiousgeorgie]

My neighbours are both quite elderly, and I only really see them from my window when they're in the garden.

They are obsessed with the foxes.

They have ceramic plates on their decking and they fill them a few times a day with meat, bread & cheese for the foxes to eat.

There are bloody loads of them!! They are in my garden everyday so I worry about DD playing out there, and they also go in our bins and mess with the rubbish almost every night... Every morning I pick up all sorts of rubbish from my front lawn and driveway and am sick of it.

I want to knock on the door and ask them to stop feeding them which is bringing more and more of them here...

AIBU?

Fgs no one knows how any animal is going to react all the time. No way would I trust a fox with my children in the garden. You only need to be gone a minute and be sorry forever. I also think it is extremely insensitive to suggest the babies in London were part if a conspiracy about foxes.

Fox shit is vile, we have a 6 foot fence but they still get in and out of the garden. They've chewed through garden furniture, knawed at the swings, the kids bike handles, the plastic ride ons - sooo many footballs. We gain random shoes and slippers, we lose gardening gloves. They've eaten the trampoline net and the DCs shoes off the trampoline. They shit on the doorstep, on the swings (I was both disgusted and in awe), on the path, on the patio - if they could squeeze out a 'fuck you' shit they would.

We do nothing to encourage them, all we can to discourage them but we just live in an urban area.

People treating foxes and other wild animals as pets is a huge problem. Wild animals are naturally shy of humans - when they get tame is actually when they are more dangerous because they are no longer afraid of humans.

springlamb I can well believe that country folk are more sensible about such things and appreciate that foxes are wild and not pets.

OP, tell your neighbours politely but straightforwardly that the foxes are a pest for you and that you are not comfortable leaving your DC in the garden with foxes about. If nothing changes, report them to the council since it is illegal to feed vermin.

I agree with whoever said that vermin are only animals we don't have a use for, but actually part of respecting wild animals is treating them as wild animals.

Oh and someone asked why feeding birds is encouraged - birds are helpful for the mini-ecosystem of a garden, particularly if people want to grow fruit and veg since they prey on pests such as caterpillars.

FWIW I love foxes and would love to see them in the garden, but would not feed or deliberately encourage them in any way.

Nickymanchester - bloody loads isn't two. It's sometimes six, including cubs. Foxes are constantly in the garden, under the shed, behind the compost heap... You turn the outside lights on at night and there is ALWAYS at least one fox in the garden... Sometimes even up on the decking right by the back door. If I go outside to put something in the bin there's 2 in the shed roof laying down...

It's not just 2. At all.

curious I would def say something and report if nothing happens - that is an unusual number. More than two adults, right?

I agree it is a bad idea to feed foxes and at some levels it does become anti-social. A different type of animal but in the town where I live there are a few older men who like to feed the swans by hand in the local park. It is not endearing. As a result some of the swans (not all) have become way too bold and there are now too swans. The pushy ones stand right in your face, follow you around and demand to be hand fed by anyone and everyone who steps within 10-15 metres of the river. My husband took my daughter to feed the ducks last year and ended up getting nipped on the leg because he wouldn't hand feed the swans. Swans are usually beautiful, graceful and dignified - these ones are not any more. Obviously we just don't feed the ducks any more and stay well away from the river - to be honest I think the ducks and geese have had enough of the swans (who I saw were often attacked if they tried to get food) and seemed to have moved on as well. But you don't really have a choice if it is in your own garden do you? Have a word with the neighbours about the sheer number of foxes and scale of the feeding and if that does not work maybe enquire about humane pest control e.g. foxes and cats hear higher frequencies than humans so (unless you have a cat) you could put a device on your property that you wouldn't notice but would hopefully keep the foxes well out of your garden.

I am against the whole idea of having animals in homes and gardens, but if you think cats and dogs are fine then you can't reasonably object to people feeding foxes.

As has been pointed out (even by the RSPCA) it's dogs that attack people and dog shit can maim and kill children if infected (not to mention how vile it is when they come home covered in it)

So if there's a plan to ban all animals I'm with you, but leave the neighbours alone and think about ways to discourage the foxes from your garden. You can't stop a determined fox, but they are not determined to get into your garden because the food is next door. Just make it less convenient and that should do it.

I don't know about them being more scared than us. I had a baby one stare me out one morning before choosing to turn on its heels and leg it. I actually thought you was my NDN for a moment then OP. Then remembered I'm not elderly and don't feed foxes. It made me chuckle once though when they asked if I had a dog because something kept pooing in their garden. It's the family of foxes that have lived behind us in the wood since day one . There's four of them and ok m frightened to death of the daddy he's massive!

Back but foxes are wild animals, cats and dogs are domesticated. They behave in totally different ways. It is unreasonable for people to treat wild animals as pets.

Also seriously at banning animals from homes and gardens. Would you also ban songbirds? What about insects??

Having foxes about wouldn't bother me but then I grew up in the country and we had nightly visits from a skunk family, raccoon and fat waddling porcupine to our compost heap. It used to be a treat as a child to allowed to stay up to watch the procession.

Foxes are beautiful animals, and a joy to watch. We had a family of them in our garden one summer, mum, dad and three cubs - was such a pleasure to see them all playing together every evening.

It's a really tough life for an urban fox, most of them that get picked up by vets or rescue centres have current or historic fractures from traffic accidents. Imagine having to go and hunt for food to feed your children with a broken leg.

HoleyGhost Sat 25-Jan-14 19:08:56
What vile insinuation re the parents of the mauled twins and other families affected.

Honestly not insinuating anything regarding the parents. Just inferring that a mistaken assumption could have been made - and that experts have said that that could be the case. I don't know the facts (and I said that) - but the article I was reading said this:

"He has never known of a fox attacking a human, calling this one a "completely unique event" in his 40-year career. He said it was a "freak incident" which he thought "will never be repeated".

"Mr Bryant said he had heard of two similar cases but they turned out to be incidents involving a German Shepherd dog and a cat.

"He thinks that people should not leave their doors open at night and should dispose of nappies in a bin rather than leaving them on top of it.

"He said: "People leave nappies in the street and there is a lot of food out there for them. It is down to us not to create the conditions for them."

"There are thought to be around 30,000 foxes in urban areas in the UK, including 10,000 in London alone.

"Another top wildlife expert Terry Nutkins told Sky News Online that he is 75% sure that the attack was not carried out by a fox, saying it was more likely to be a dog or a cat.

"He also wants to know more about the injuries of the youngsters. He said if they were scratched, rather than bitten, it was more likely to be a cat."

Just googled do foxes attack humans?
It says we must NOT feed foxes
It diminishes their natural fear ....
Op I would say something it's quite worrying.
Am surprised by the number of people are think this is ok. Even more so by..... Ohhhhh how lovely!
Foxes are predatory animals!!!

I wonder if the RSPCA would pay a visit to this couple to explain why feeding the foxes is not a good idea?

For what it's worth, I don't think you're being unreasonable. It's nice to leave a baby sleeping outside in the garden with minimal supervision if it's safe to do so. By minimal supervision I mean I would (and have) left DD sleeping outside with a window open so I could hear when she woke, but not always watching her.

But I wouldn't be happy leaving her there if I thought there was any animal coming into my garden- I wouldn't even have left her with my own dog who I knew and trusted.

Orcas are 'beautiful animals' and 'a joy to watch'.

I'm not about to toss my DC into the ocean with them and hope for the best though, am I?

This thread is faintly hilarious.

If your council is anything like ours, it has been known for the neighbours to band togeter to complain about fox-feeders and an ASBO issued. To the feeders, not the foxes, obviously. It comes under antisocial behaviour.

YANBU, OP. Foxes are wild animals, and potentially dangerous. They're a nuisance at best.

A nuisance in this situation, I mean. I live in the country and I don't mind the foxes at all. Not that I actually see them, just their poos.

I vaguely know someone who is good friends with the family whose twins were attacked. I think it was more than just scratches as one of the children was having ongoing treatment on her arm some weeks later - they were all going out for the day and they happened to mention that they couldn't meet early as they were up at the hospital having treatment first. I'm sure the professionals involved would know the difference between cat scratches, dog bites and fox bites wouldn't they?

Foxes carry weils disease, I know a family with young children whose daughter contracted it and were told by the medical professionals that it was most likely that she had caught if from foxes urinating on their garden toys/ paddling pools and the children playing with the toys and then having drinks/snacks in the garden. She was quite Ill for quite some time so foxes do pose a threat to children even without the risk of attack.

This thread has undergone a weird transformation from 'AIBU to tell my neighbours to stop feeding the foxes?' to 'Foxes are a lovely bit of wildlife in your garden' vs 'Foxes are dangerous and carry diseased'.

So. I'd speak to the neighbours and ask them nicely to stop feeding. I'd not use anything cryptic. If they refuse I'd see if the council was at all interested in this problem (not sure whether they would be).

What everybody else does with their foxes in their gardens, I don't care . Personally, I'll continue enjoying the odd sighting at dusk or dawn and will continue to NOT feed them.

You're right, Pacific. I feel that is partly my fault too.

Can I go back to the point I made first, which is that whilst I don't think the children will be at risk of being attacked by the foxes (and by the time summer gets here the OP will have a nearly one year old and a 3 or 4 year old) that fox poo in the garden must be revolting. From that point of view I would personally have a friendly word with my neighbours and express my concerns.

I don't think the OP is BU at all, but the fox leaflet doesn't say 'Don't feed them at all, ever', it says don't feed them so much they become dependent, which is what is happening here.

I wonder if the OP would have the most success if she tried to get the neighbours to massively cut down the amount they feed, as per RSPCA and University of Bristol advice, rather than never feed?

Or would that just risk the neighbours cutting it down to start with and then the amount creeping up again?