To poison these bloody foxes??

[curiousgeorgie]

Everyday I wake up to rubbish all over my garden and driveway... Foxes shit on my decking and today my doormat!!!

The whole place stinks and it's getting ridiculous. They live in the bit behind my garden because our back neighbours have fenced off the weeds at the back of theirs...

My next door neighbours feed them. 3 times a day from a plate on their decking. Whole loaves of bread and pieces of meat and blocks of cheese...

I just want to get rid of them. Day one when we saw four baby foxes running around our garden we thought it was lovely, but now it's totally ridiculous. I have a 1 year old and a 3 year old and every morning I have to go out and clean and hose before my daughter can go out.

It must be okay to poison them or something right??

[Arudonto]

Hire a marksman. Shooting fox is not illegal and when done by someone experienced it is considered humane.

Posion is anything but humane :(

More fox's will move into the territory in time though so fox deterrents are essential.

[FreeSpirit89]

YABU - in sure your day to day activities annoy someone. Should we poison you too?

We have to share the plant with others people and animals, what makes you so special op?

[YoureNotCutOutForHumanityAreYo]

Shooting is far from acceptable or recommended in an urban area, Arudonto. I won't go into the unacceptability or inhumanity of killing wldlife because it's doing what wildlife do, period. I think I've covered that.

Trapping and relocation (not snaring) or prevention and deterrent is the recommend way to control urban foxes.

[newfavouritething]

Think you'd be pushed to find someone willing to shoot a fox in a back garden. Best to trap them, then release them in the garden of those posters above who would be happy to have foxes in their garden, or take them out of town and shoot them. Urban foxes do not fair well in the fields.

So come on, who lives closest to the OP and wants the foxes in their garden?

[OhMrGove]

I see you're in Surrey.

I'm with the Surrey Union hunt - shame Labour stopped us from sorting this out

runs and hides

[YoureNotCutOutForHumanityAreYo]

I'm thankfully nowhere near the OP and my garden is already host to perfectly welcome foxes - after all, their species inhabited this land long before the post war period when my house was built - but thanks anyway, newfavouritething.

[Fluffycloudland77]

So, these foxes get disposed of.

But, what about the next lot of foxes that move into the area? Or the ones after them?.

If you get animals in the garden you have something they want, be it debris off the bird feeder (rats, squirrels) or poorly disposed of waste.

If you're not part of the solution you're part of the problem.

[ADishBestEatenCold]

"I have a dog, I don't know if some of these deterrents are okay with a dog"

Have you any idea how they would die, if poisoned, these animals whose anatomy, physiology, intellect and even behavior, is so like your dog's?

Do you know how they would die? If so you are no animal lover, so I don't know why you even bother to pretend to care whether "these deterrents are okay with a dog".

Then, if poisoned, having suffered a horrific death, the corpses would go on to bequeath an equally horrific death on any scavenging birds or animals, including cats and dogs (maybe even your dog), because of course the foxes might die, but in many, many cases the poison in the bodies will not ... instead being again ingested to kill again.

This is really your preferred solution to your fox 'problem', curiousgeorgie???

[Joysmum]

We get a fix and a badger come in ours. Our boundary is secure on 3 3/4 sides. They tunnel in from next door through the 18ft of boundary that isn't secure. We are going to sink in some metal rods along that bit so neither can come in.

[LeoandBoosmum]

I get your frustration but it's sick to seriously contemplate killing he foxes... Also, do you know how painful poisoning is?! Yes, as others have said, it's illegal to kill a fox and I'm sure if they turn up dead your fox-loving neighbours will report you...

Look for other ways...
I don't know if you can make your propert any more secure and fox-proof than it is...?
I found this on the net:
community.havahart.com/repellents/deter-foxes-humanely/

[ADishBestEatenCold]

"Hire a marksman"

As YoureNotCutOutForHumanityAreYo has already pointed out, not in an urban area.

The very best option open to OP is to properly fox-proof her garden.

Fox-proof fencing ... combined with the use of deterrents ... will go a long way towards solving the problem. That is, if OP really is interested in solving the problem. I say that because of course ... even if it were legal ... poisoning would not be a long term solution.

[curiousgeorgie]

Fluffycloud - they are there not because of something I have. But because the neighbour has basically set up a buffet for them!!

[D0oinMeCleanin]

Either you have a very small dog or these are some freakin' brave foxes.

We walk our dogs in an area full of foxes. The foxes all run for cover as soon as they catch sent of the dogs.

Are you sure it's foxes and not your own dog? I'd be very surprised if foxes were coming into a garden where a dog might be.

[ChelsyHandy]

You'reNotCutOut I'm thankfully nowhere near the OP and my garden is already host to perfectly welcome foxes - after all, their species inhabited this land long before the post war period when my house was built - but thanks anyway, newfavouritething

Although for the vast majority of that habitation, they would have been subject to their own natural predators in the food chain, which have been wiped out in Britain. Hence their ever increasing numbers and their ability to exploit what is, for them, an unnatural environment.

Anyway, I'm sure you will offer to relocate the OP's troublesome foxes for her to your own garden, free of charge - problem solved!

Otherwise, please don't advocate relocating urban foxes to other parts of the country - its idiotic and unlikely to benefit them.

[ChelsyHandy]

Fox-proofing a communal garden is going to be difficult, because it sounds as if the OP will also have to fox-proof her fox-feeding neighbours!

[curiousgeorgie]

Doin - if my dog was sneaking out at night, going through people's bins, shitting all over the place and then sneaking back in, locking the door and laying down on my bed I'd be amazed

[D0oinMeCleanin]

My dog goes through bins and shits all over the place. I don't poison him though, I just clean the shit up and promise to be more careful where I leave rubbish next time.

[Fluffycloudland77]

You are, they aren't rooting around in your bins for fun.

Lock your bins or put them in a shed.

My parents had foxes rip their bin bags open because they'd leave them out overnight waiting for the refuse collectors so they could lie in.

[VeryPunny]

YANBU. Would happily shoot them, they ate vermin. Can't believe your neighbours are so irresponsible as to feed them. Foxes have adapted easily to urban life so any guff about destroying their habitat is bolleaux.

[VeryPunny]

Actually, why not collect all the shit and hand it to your neighbours if they don't have a problem with Foxy Woxy?

[YoureNotCutOutForHumanityAreYo]

"Otherwise, please don't advocate relocating urban foxes to other parts of the country - its idiotic and unlikely to benefit them"

See, there you go again, being rude and not bothering to read what was actually said, Chelsey.

Can you please point out where I advocated relocating urban foxes "to other parts of the country" Chelsy*? Only I can't seem to recall writing that.

I'll say it again. I practice what I preach. Of course I'd have no problem in accommodating the OP's foxes (save for that I live in the country and it would be "idiotic and unlikely to benefit them"). It would be at her expense if it happened though. She's the one with the 'problem'.

[ItsDinah]

The urban foxes I know are not wildlife. They are feral creatures and nothing like rural foxes or the foxes that continue to live in recently built up areas. They are enormous. They look nothing like wild foxes and do not have the natural timidity of humans that wild ones do. They have been fed by hand by too many people and would not exist if people did not deliberately feed them. The population I know about first emerged when the Council went over to using plastic sacks for rubbish. There had been a small wild fox population living locally for over 100 years in natural habitat and along the railway line. Plastic bin bags lured them deeper and deeper into what had been built up urban fox free area for over 100 years and even after the introduction of secure wheelie bins the ready availability of food given by people who do not think that it is unkind to try to tame wild animals, led to a population explosion. If the OP has this type of feral fox the situation is pretty hopeless.The chemical repellants are an expensive waste of money in the OPs situation. I have seen feral foxes licking the spillage from the tin Her garden is now part of their territory. If it is concreted over and eight foot high fox proof fencing is erected around it that might keep them out. They can still burrow under fencing but are less attracted to concreted yards than to gardens.The OP will be lucky if she can get the council do anything beyond giving the neighbours advice which they will ignore. The right kind of dogs let loose on them would see them off but they are not the sort of dogs you should keep as pets when you have children.

[ChelsyHandy]

YoureNotCutOut Do you think animals care if someone is "being rude" as you call it on an internet forum? Whats it got to do with fox welfare if you don't like what someone says?

For all your talk of whats normal and whats not, the impression I'm getting of you is that you are a bit of an animal rights obsessive and not the most balanced advocate of whats best for animals. You might want to check how that fits into your criteria of normal.

[D0oinMeCleanin]

I love reading all the expert opinions on threads like these.

You learn so much