Fox wandered into my living room last night

[yumyumlama]

Yelled at it so it retreated (rather slowly). Shut door between house and conservatory ... And 2 mins later saw had wandered back into conservatory, as casual as you like!

AIBU to call for best ways to deter foxes? Do not want him wandering on in!

Live in Richmond, London btw so this is a semi urban fox ....

I live in London, and we always see a little fox in our garden.
We have two cats and I often leave food out when I haven't seen them all day so I think the fox comes to eat their food.
I wouldn't leave my door open.

Sorry Sunshineonacloudyday can't decipher much of your message. How precisely do you think someone goes about getting a firearms licence in the UK. and what was it about pp's post that made you assume they weren't competent?

I have a neighbour who is highly skilled with a rifle, he's only 17 and dispatched an incredibly mangy fox that had taken nine of his farm's ducks within the space of two weeks. I caught it with one in its mouth at about 4pm, ridiculous. That's humanity. Not feeding them
Kitchen scraps or your left over Mcdonalds in an artificial environment that doesn't allow for any form of healthy wildlife.

Batfurger,
Your post has really made me think as I never thought about it like that before, but I live in central London and we often see baby foxes running about looking for food what are we supposed to do?

I love animals. I've kept pets ranging from horses to hedgehogs over the years and grew up in a rural farming community. And I have to say that foxes are not to be petted or encouraged or protected. They may look beautiful, but they are also the only animal that kills for fun. A fox in a henhouse won't just kill the one chicken it needs for food - it kills them all just to amuse itself. Or cats. Or lambs.

Thanks to too much readily available food, there are now more foxes than ever before and they are getting bigger and bigger. Having spent several early mornings when I was younger scooping up the bodies of our massacred chickens, I've learned they really aren't a creature to be sentimental over!

"At least they don't attack other animals though."
Like hell they don't. My parents lost a pet chicken to a raccoon recently. They'll sometimes even take on dogs that are as big or bigger than they are. And raccoons aren't small!

I'll lend you my westie, he HATES foxes. He's never managed to catch one mind you but they do scarper when they see him

Foxes don't kill for fun. They have a prey-stalk-kill instinct that doesn't shut off after a kill if another prey animal appears. A fox in a henhouse will do a lot of damage but it's not killing to "amuse itself", it's just responding to instinct. The onus is on the chicken keeper to make their coop fox-proof.

I wouldn't encourage a fox by feeding it, not least because I have cats and my priority is to protect them, but I wouldn't harm one and if I saw one looking sick or injured I'd try to get treatment for it, or arrange for quick & humane PTS if it looked really bad. It's tricky with wild animals though because being restrained is incredibly stressful for them so you can end up inadvertently making things worse despite good intentions.

Foxes don't kill for fun. They have a prey-stalk-kill instinct that doesn't shut off after a kill if another prey animal appears. A fox in a henhouse will do a lot of damage but it's not killing to "amuse itself", it's just responding to instinct. The onus is on the chicken keeper to make their coop fox-proof.

I wouldn't encourage a fox by feeding it, not least because I have cats and my priority is to protect them, but I wouldn't harm one and if I saw one looking sick or injured I'd try to get treatment for it, or arrange for quick & humane PTS if it looked really bad. It's tricky with wild animals though because being restrained is incredibly stressful for them so you can end up inadvertently making things worse despite good intentions.

man, if I had a choice between spending time with a fox or you, I would definitely choose the fox. I don't think there are many foxes who are gun-carrying gobshites with anger management issues.

As for cats, it depends. I witnessed a fox passing my cat on the street. 2meters distance. I was shitting myself. My big tom and the fox just looked at each other and then continued their walk. The fox seemed unwilling to risk potential injuries from a fight. They are wild animals and their natural instinct is to be healthy.
As for urban foxes - people are to blame. Leaving trash outside encourages foxes.

"I don't think there are many foxes who are gun-carrying gobshites with anger management issues."
I have my suspicions that if foxes could carry guns, there would be a fair few who would choose to be gun-toting gobshites with anger management issues. Humans aren't particularly unique animals when it comes to that sort of thing, although some people like to think we are.

Humans aren't particularly unique animals when it comes to that sort of thing, although some people like to think we are.

The primary instinct of a wild animal is to avoid injuries. Hence you don't see many of them picking unnecessary fights. While they may be different characters, some more aggressive than others, shitty random behaviour seems to be a prerogative of humans because we seem to have that awareness of being on top of the foodchain in us.

We used to have a fox in the garden when I lived in Wimbledon. I kept the patio door closed. These days I have bastard coyotes and bears. Foxes are no different. You don't feed wild animals. End of. They get habituated and bold and end up putting themselves in harms way because eventually they either hurt someone / something, or they forget how to feed themselves in the wild without human intervention. Either way ends up with a dead critter. To feed a wild animal is to endanger it, really. Just now here we have a whole wolf pack in danger because of human activity, either feeding them deliberately or leaving food accessible (barbecues/ campgrounds). There is no doubt here that we are in the animal's territory, but it makes no difference. A fed bear/ wolf/ coyote is a dead bear/ wolf/ coyote. Fortunately, no one is stupid enough to try and feed the damned cougars, although some eejit let loose domestic bunnies in town a few year's back and so the cougars do pop by for dinner sometimes. Feeding the wildlife isn't always as straightforward as putting a plate down.
Foxes in my house? Nooooooooo thank you.

In towns and cities they live by scavenging on waste and dead animals from roadkill. The likelyhood of desiese and infection is almost guaranteed.

They are highly intellegent (for an animal) and avoid traps. In a town they will be a pest killing peoples pets. Yet some people will think them cuddly and feed them.

One was predsting a bird sanctuary in Bedfordshire a few years ago. They tried everythiing they could to no avail.. In the end the sanctuary got the local hunt to do the job.

Feeding wild animals can put both animal and human in danger, depending on the animal.
My ex brother-in-law used to regularly be unable to go to work in the morning because a local (to him at the time) black bear liked to nap in the bed of his truck after raiding the neighbourhood garbage cans.
Does put a different spin on the 'humans are the top of the food chain' argument as well.

The bleeding heart types who feed them are the problem. These are wild animals not pets and by feeding them you are removing their ability to fend for themselves because they have a ready supply of food available. As such they become bolder when looking for food and if they're used to someone coming out of their house to feed them it's only a matter of time before they become bold enough to enter into a house to find food if none is forthcoming. And the reality is that once they're inside they're essentially cornered which is when they become aggressive.

Whenever you go anywhere there is wildlife e.g. Monkeys, baboons, other wild animals which are in close proximity you will see signs telling you not to feed them and for very good reasons.

There is middle ground here between harming the wildlife which comes into your space and actively encouraging it in by feeding it. If we leave the wildlife alone it will leave us alone. Encourage it into your garden or house and it will think that any human is friendly and a food source so won't distinguish between your house and that of someone who may do it harm or someone who has small children which could be harmed by it.

they are also the only animal that kills for fun. A fox in a henhouse won't just kill the one chicken it needs for food - it kills them all just to amuse itself. Or cats. Or lambs

I don't even feel bad at wanting to shoot the bastards now. For fun? Fucking hell. It's a conscious choice for the shites isn't it?

It's called surplus killing and foxes are not the only ones. Lions, bears, polar bears, whales. It's instinctive.

Surplus killing is instinctive in humans too...

Are you suggesting foxes are able to control their instincts like humans? They kill to survive, human's pop to the shop.

But with surplus killing, the animal doesn't necessarily kill to survive.

If we could, we could domesticate foxes so yes there's a possibility that they can control these instincts.

My cat and a local fox regularly meet up in next doors garden. Cat was really put out the first time I panicked and grabbed him back inside and I feel he had to apologise the next time for his stupid, overprotective human.

We have the same problem in Kingston, so just down the road from you. I've been told the only way to deter them is to get the man of the house to pee around the perimeter of your garden. Nothing will stop these beasts- I've seen them scale 6 feet fences straight up like a cat and walk along the top of fences. Bloody nuisance. Not only are they dangerous but they leave the most horrible mess - poo as well as digging up the garden. I've had loads of garden stuff ruined too, like table covers and kids play equipment.

As cute as this fox is www.instagram.com/juniperfoxx/ the owner does warn that even pet foxes are very smelly and will bite.

I'd do anything possible to discourage it from coming in. I've seen deterrents like this www.foxolutions.co.uk/fox-repellents but have not had to use them, so don't know if they work well.