AIBU to ask a stupid question about this fox cub?

[Sundiamond]

So around 6pm every night for about a week/10 days, a fox cub has come to our back door and tapped. I believe there are foxes living somewhere over one of the back fences that are in our neighbourhood.

Why? What does he want? Food? Is he intrigued by our dog? We never feed him, we shoo him away. Although I have to say, he has the most gorgeous little face...

As do dogs ....

And people. Someone shat on the step outside work once.

Foxes may be around more than people think. Whenever it snows, I always find fox prints around our house, although in 18 years I've only seen one twice.

And people. Someone shat on the step outside work once.

Yes! A chef in a restaurant I worked in took a shit on the preparation area, (he denied it, but we all knew it was him).

@930onaTuesdayNight

Foxes are everywhere in our London neighbourhood and they are vile . They wake everyone up with their screams at night, break into the rubbish bins, chew through anything left outside, including buried electrical wires, and worst of all they poo everywhere! I sometimes see dead ones on the road and once we had a big dead one in our garden. We’ve had cubs before and they are cute but personally I would NEVER, EVER do anything to encourage foxes to stay. They are invasive and do not belong in residential areas.

They also eat rats, especially since most (if not all) boroughs have made wheelie bins mandatory so there isn't as much in the way of loose food, other than abandoned boxes of chicken (which the rats also thrive on). Rats are worse than Foxes, do far, far more damage and spread more disease. Foxes are also an indigenous species, so can't be termed invasive. Invasive is a term for such things as Signal Crayfish, Zander and Himalayan Balsam, not a creature that's been here for many thousands of years.

They get a bit noisy and their faeces stink, but they are an integral part of the urban landscape through our own actions.

Yes! A chef in a restaurant I worked in took a shit on the preparation area, (he denied it, but we all knew it was him)

I would like to request the full story please @GeidiPrimes

@GeidiPrimes

And people. Someone shat on the step outside work once.

Yes! A chef in a restaurant I worked in took a shit on the preparation area, (he denied it, but we all knew it was him).

Oh my god. I, too, want the full story. I also want to know what restaurant so I can avoid forever

It was when I used to work PT in a really dingy, run down hotel, the chef was a temperamental coke-head who really hated the owner. I arrived earlier than him on carvery day to "freshen up the gravy" (pulling last weeks gravy out of the cold-storage and topping it up with gravy granules and hot water) Some time after the chef arrived there was a big commotion and we discovered the shit in the kitchen. It was cleared away and they just went on with service

The hotel's been sold on, but I'd probably never eat a carvery ever again.

A chef in a restaurant I worked in took a shit on the preparation area, (he denied it, but we all knew it was him).

Part of me remembered "Spinal Tap" ...

... but you can't duct for vomit ...

as I imagined a DNA dragnet being set up ....

We have a fox that comes and sleeps on the bonfire the morning after we've lit it, when there's still a bit of warmth left. But there are crops around us and they help keep the rabbit population down, and they never ask for food. In cities it must be hard for them to find food.

@AlwaysLatte it's not hard for them to find food in my area of inner London, they can feast every day on abandoned chicken, pizza, chips, kebabs . .

I find the posts claiming the importance of keeping them away from dogs and labelling them vermin both amusing amusing and a little disturbing.

Foxes are a species of canid.
Like wolves, coyotes and domestic dogs...
Funny no one thinks of their pet dog as ‘vermin’

The PPs that mentioned foxes in gardens burying rotten stuff, digging, shitting, chewing stuff, ripping open bags etc.
Exactly the sort of behaviour you’d expect from a dog!
Which foxes basically are..

There was a Russian (I think) study that proved foxes were domesticated easier than dogs and completely tame within a few generations.

Not that I agree with feeding/taming wild animals mind.
It’s much too dangerous for them once they lose their natural fear

The fox study

I’ve just been out to leave some chicken bones and a raw egg for the local fox, such beautiful creatures.
It’s wonderful that we still share our urban landscapes with wild creatures.
Please can people also spare a thought for hedgehogs and still leave our water and cat biscuits for them.
Many are hibernating but they still pop out occasionally for food and water.
Please follow Hedgehog Cabin on Twitter and look up her website for excellent info on what you can do to protect this declining species.

There's some shocking ignorance on this thread.

But it's reassuring to see that kind, sensible people seem to be in the majority.

I volunteer at The Fox Project and it really is the most amazing experience. It's a privilege being able to get up close with such wonderful animals. They all have their own unique personalities and they're incredibly clever. And no, I've never been bitten. These are photos of some of my favourite patients.

(I've posted the teddy bear photo before so apologies to those who've seen it already).

How wonderful.
(We have foxes rarely, the badgers keep them away 😂) and both keep the rats away.
I would love foxes but badgers are cleaner and tidier. We leave water out for them, they drink everyday from the birdbath and I keep it clean. They may also scavenge from the compose heap but as they stop rats from nesting there that is good.
Foxes and badgers, in lieu of lynx and wildcats, are the closest to apex predators. Without them, our ecosystem is unbalanced and we tip into trouble.

Could you compromise and leave water out for them instead of food. And If you are a distance away from neighbours, a bit of food, only when the temperature is below freezing? So you aren’t feeding them but are an emergency backup so they don’t die.

We invasive humans have done so much harm to the environment. We use pesticides so there are no slugs, and no hedgehogs , we have destroyed the hedgerow too, so no berries, insects, hedgehogs etc.

Please could you post a picture? Sounds like a dream ☺️ Glad to hear many balanced and kind MNetters on the thread, also experienced ones, with negative experiences.

Fox poo may contain really bad worms you can’t get rid of, so if u grow food or have kids, best to fence off the garden for now, sorry.

I wonder if there are other houses nearby who give it food at the back door - and he’s trying his life with more houses

*luck

[smile]@Sparklesocks there probably are, which makes him tame enough to come up to the glass pane and peek inside. He would probably come in if he could, for a nice dinner But it is Probably not safe for him to feel so comfortable around human scents, too many people would bludgeon him as “vermin”

So probably best not to befriend him.
But leave some water out for him, far from all the houses.
(Do foxes need salt lumps like other woodland animals?)

Have you had any visits tonight from the cub OP?

I have a whole family of foxes in the backyard most mornings. I live in Aus though so they are classified as pests and have been killing the native animals, chickens and small pets around the neighborhood.

They are amazing to watch how they move and obviously very smart, it’s a pity they damage so much here

Utter nonsense

Kindest thing is to befriend them from a distance.
Unfortunately foxes are easily tamed, and houses putting out food etc is a form of taming and training them to interact with humans.

A woman on my old road used to proudly hand feed foxes, and had deliberately trained them to come to her conservatory by leaving food closer and closer. Unfortunately the neighbours didnt take to fondly for the foxes coming to their doors for the same, and it had a very unhappy ending when one came into a house where a dog was present.

They arent to know who is safe and who isnt.

I now live by the seaside and have watched a man teach a seagull to come into his flat for breakfast, sadly a neighbour in another flat grew tired of the tapping and seagull coming in through open window and poisoned it.

I follow Mr Lumpy & Friends on Facebook about a lady who calls herself the nut fairy and she feeds badgers, foxes and squirrels that come into her garden - it's addictive.

@HundredMilesAnHour Awwwww, beautiful.

@BadTattoosAndSmellLikeBooze

NikeDeLaSwoosh

Lol. I don’t eat foxes or any other animal for that matter. I practise good hygiene so I should be ok. 🙄 Nice try though. 🤣

You will come into contact with dander, saliva and urine/faeces which can all be vectors for zoonotic disease.

Perhaps educate yourself on the concept of zoonosis before being quite so snippy?