AIBU to think a fox cub is cute and so adoreable and maybe put out titbits

[Yukduck]

For three sundowns running we have had a fox cub come into our back garden and have a drink from our pond.
The first night we thought he was a hedgehog ambling around the garden and setting off the personal light at the back as he is about the same size. It was twilight and we got quite close (about 20ft away) before we could see it was a fox cub.
Mum fox is about but stays up the bank and not in our garden watching her cub. He seems a sturdy little fellow.
I know they are vermin. But he really is the cutest little thing with bright eyes and a bit chubby and fluffy and very alert and inquisitive.
Would it be so very wrong to leave out some chicken or cat food?

Charlie. It was nerve wracking because it had to have 3 doses. First 2 fine last one v tricky.

ABeta We saw a squirrel use a zebra crossing in Bethnal Green one morning! It was hilarious. We were driving and I suddenly spotted it coming down the path, DH stopped the car at the zebra, squirrel paused, looked both ways, then shot across. If only I'd been quicker with my phone I could have videoed it.

lamiashiro -

I used to live in London. Never saw squirrels much less using a zebra crossing. I always think its funny watching pigeons getting on the tube at above ground stations and off at the next station.

They do a very useful job scavenging

How is rummaging through bins and scatttering rubbish about a very useful job?

How gorgeous. My dad opened his front door once to find one fast asleep in the doorstep, all curled up with its tiny nose under its tail!

However I think you just have to squeeee from a distance - they are wild animals. And the urban ones who live on human scraps aren't so cute; the ones on my road (in Central London) are giant greyish wheezing fat things!

It always makes me think of this quote:

"One could not say, watching a hawk, I ought perhaps to do this for him"

YANBU

I can't understand how people can call one of our most beautiful indigenous species of wildlife vermin

But...but...they rip into rubbish bags I leave outside. And their wee makes my patio smell. And two children have been attacked in my whole lifetime so they're very dangerous

Foxes are beautiful. And yes, they are still beautiful when they eat lambs and chickens because that's what animals do. A lion isn't less beautiful because it kills bison.

Have we had the daily mail links to 'fox attacks' yet? Or the posts calling them vermin?
Or the people moaning about fox poo or chickens/lambs being killed (it's okay for humans to slaughter them though).

We took their habitat away, hunt them for fun (that will be 'accidentally' coming across one one a drag hunt), poison them and get pest control in when they annoy us.

The average age that a fox lives to is 18 months, they have a very tough life generally and often if they have become very bold, it is the result of a very common brain infection which makes them uninhibited. They eat rats which is a good way of keeping down the population, they don't kill for fun, they would bury or 'cache' a glut of food for later if allowed to.

Foxes are quite dog like, they wag their tails when happy and are kept as domestic pets in some countries - any dog owners on here objecting to them?

I haven't RTFT as I get too upset with the same old thing being spouted about foxes, since becoming involved with a rescue I have learnt so much about them. They are seen as a legitimate target for ill treatment when they are really very similar to undomesticated dogs.

Jeremy....I accept you as an honorary member of the very much made up Fox Defence League. Welcome!

And yes....we have had all of those posts!

And how can you look into this little one's eyes and see vermin?

We watched one take some scraps yesterday from the garden. He was utterly unafraid and walked all round the garden. I don't mind their breeding noises which we sometimes hear at night and there is no rubbish for them to make a mess of as everyone has it in their wheelie bins. We have no adverse issues caused by foxes. Mind you I usually say to the children what a nice coat collar they would make so I'm not sentimental about them and I support an overturn of the hunting ban.

any dog owners on here objecting to them?

Yes. Next question?

don't feed the fox.
our neighbour does and at night our garden is full of them.
their poo stinks (tbf not worse than dog poo) and they mark the garden with urine which honks.

I'll never understand how people can see foxes as vermin! Or any animal, but I'm a raving lunatic loves-every-animal type of person!
I couldn't resist leaving a cat food dish out with nibbles every night. I do this in our back garden, I fill up a double bowl thing with ft biscuits for any strays or foxes feeling peckish! Never seen any though :(

I had a whole fox family sunning themselves on the roof of my garage one summer.
They just hid between the icy and the roses and napped away.
At night they kept DS company after he came home back from whatever he was coming back from and smoked whatever it was he was smoking hiding between the flower pots and shrubs.
He remembers that summer fondly.

A young fox lept up and smashed into our patio doors a few weeks ago. It didn't break the glass but it looked stunned afterwards. The glass is slightly reflective so I guess it saw its reflection. It also tried to get into the house through a window but the gap was too small. He was cute but I really don't want a fox coming in my house.

BTW foxes mating is awful. It goes on for hours and sounds like a woman screaming. It's creepy.

I don't think there's anything wrong with it. We have three fox cubs in our garden. We barely ever use it, no young children or pets, and it's really sweet to see them running around and playing.

I've left the odd bit of food out for them a handful of times. Not regularly enough for them to become dependent, just the odd treat. I don't see it as any different from them getting lucky in a bin.

They are beautiful, yes and majestic.
Perhaps you should google the articles about foxes mauling babies, only in the last three years, there were separate fox attacks of Lola and Isabella Koupparis, Denley Dolan and Louis Day. These babies had fingers removed and faces mauled as well as reports of foxes eating a sleeping pensioners fingers. If you feed this cub, it will become a lot less shy and you could be putting yourself and another human being in real danger.
YABVU and naive. This kind of ahhhh cute lets feed the fox really only happens in this country.

they are cute.
they belong here.
but due to feeding their numbers are too high in many areas.
feeding wild animals (unless in a controlled way) is a bad thing and leads to all sorts of problems.

We have a lot of foxes in our neighbourhood. We've recently changed to wheelie bins. So the foxes are hungry.

A few weeks ago a terribly maimed (dead) cat turned up in our garden. We bagged him up, unsure what to do. By the time I got home from work, a missing cat leaflet had been put through our door.

We called the number and the owners came to see if it was their cat. It was and they were distraught-I had warned them it would be distressing.

So, whilst I'm not a fan of foxes (I won't let ds2 play in the garden alone-I've seen them in the daytime), I can see that feeding them is better than them preying on people's beloved pets.

Laughing at the thought of foxes attacking! What rubbish!

You wouldn't be laughing it you'd had one of them go for your one year old in your back garden, in broad daylight in the middle of the day because some stupid twat down the road had decided to feed the bloody things. The guy we had to pay to shoot them explained that every single domestic case he gets called to is caused by someone feeding them.

Foxes are beautiful creatures, they can be very dangerous if tamed. Wild foxes are scared of humans and therefore not a threat. It broke my heart getting them shot, but they can't relocate them and you can't keep them out, they can easily jump a six foot fence. They have territories up to 7 miles across so you may never know what problems you're causing for someone else

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DON'T FEED THE FOXES!!!!!!

I don't think any of the cases of foxes allegedly attacking humans in their houses have ever been proved.

But I can well imagine one that has been semi tamed being aggressive if approached in a garden.

Feeding them is a very silly thing to do-and very bad for them as well. They are beautiful- but they are wild animals. And should stay tat way.

I like NoTractors comment!

My parents have a small holding and were having issues with foxes killing chickens, even breaking into one of the henhouses one night. A farmer friend suggested setting a trap, one that catches the fox in a cage. Idea being if they caught it he'd then come over and shoot it for them. (This might sound rather harsh to non country folk I realise but is not an unusual practice) One morning they get up and find two beautiful cubs in the trap. My mum cannot bring herself to have them killed, lets them free and starts leaving bits of food out for them. She thinks when they grow up they'll remember her kindness and won't eat the chickens. She is delightfully bonkers.

Bertrand clearly you don't rtft because I listed the name of FOUR babies in the last three years maimed by foxes in homes. Do you actually read the papers or watch the tv?