AIBU boyfriends neighbour sets his German shepard on the foxes

[Lhun96]

My boyfriend lives on a neighbourhood close to several large parks. There are plenty of cats that roam freely here, I know foxes don't attack children/cats/dogs and luckily most of the people here have that sense too. One day however I was watching a familiar pair of foxes roam the back gardens when my boyfriends next door neighbour emerged from his house and set his German shepard on them. I immediately freaked out, I'm completely against fox hunting and I was terrified that I was about to see a fox be mauled right before my eyes. It escaped luckily but I just KNOW that this guy wants to see his dog kill the foxes. He was watching the scene, bemused, hand on hip. I hear barking out there often now but I don't go to look. I know what's happening. My boyfriend informed me that his last German shepard had killed foxes before too.

I don't think my boyfriend quite understands how utterly disgusted I was by the situation. This is their home too. We build on their habitats, all they're doing is trying to survive. And it's illegal to set pets on wildlife. He doesn't get it because his parents don't like foxes either but I was raised watching foxes raise their cubs in my grandparents garden.

I don't want to confront his neighbour because I get the sense that that would thrill him even more, but I can't stand it. I just hate people who are cruel to animals, and his dog could get hurt from this too.

Can I do anything about this? Report it to the RSPCA? Ask the nearby neighbours to stop leaving them scraps so they don't come here anymore? Try to lure them elsewhere with regular food? It just makes me so upset and I feel helpless.

Yesterday one of the foxes had a limp front paw, I'm scared she'll get caught if she goes in that garden again.

I would be reporting this guy to anyone I thought would listen. What a piece of work.

Talk to the RSPCA certainly. Hunting with dogs is illegal.

This is illegal OP.

Phone the police or RSPCA as first port of call?

This post really upsets me. I love foxes!

He sounds vile. Yes I’d report him.

Definitely report.

How does your bf feel about setting dogs on foxes?

A fox killed his rabbit when he was a child, and then his neighbours dog killed the fox. So I think after being manipulated into seeing it as a heroic act at a young age he didn't think critically about how cruel it is until I explained to him the other day that this is not normal behaviour, and normal people usually want to actively help injured animals, and that normal people aren't comfortable with seeing animals being mauled infront of them.Then he got it, but he's still uncomfortable with the idea of me making a fuss

It’s nothing to do with him, and it’s not a fuss. It’s a crime.

This sounds pretty unpleasant behaviour, and I'm not excusing it in any way, but I will take issue with your statement that foxes don't attack domestic animals - living in the country, I've lost two cats to foxes and neighbour's have lost chickens on more than one occasion. They're not cuddly creatures by any means.

I don't think they're cuddly, but they stick to themselves more often than not (with the exception of hunting chickens). My cat and the fox that lives nearby by us have never had any trouble. In fact all our neighbours have cats and chickens too, and dogs, and we feed the fox and there isn't trouble. I'm not claiming there are never encounters, but that's exactly my point, his neighbour shouldn't be actively encouraging his dog to chase them. Imagine if he sees one whilst out on a walk and chases it into the road and the dog gets hit? It's completely cruel and he does it for his own entertainment. The dog is only a year old

Yanbu to be v upset I would be.

Foxes I'd have thought could get away quite well though. They can run fast and jump well etc. In this case though obv not.

His behaviour is VILE. I find that sort of behaviour more upsetting to see other humans behaving like that.

On the what to do.

I think Foxes are officially vermin so don't think what he's doing is illegal.

I'm sure animal charities Def help injured Foxes as well though.

I'll check online to see law.

If a neighbour of mine did this I would want to do something though.

I was wrong good.

'Foxes are protected under a series of wildlife protection laws against poisoning, gassing, asphyxiating, maiming, stabbing, impaling, drowning, clubbing and most forms of snaring, with anyone convicted of carrying out such acts liable to 6 months imprisonment and/or a £5,000 fine per animal.'

I would be tempted to do police non emergency if where you live there any chance might be interested.

It's probably illegal what he did.

Otherwise it's got to be some kind of anti social behaviour. Encouraging German shepherds to hunt in residential area not clever at all. Could lead to dogs being dangerous generally.

I don't ever bother with the police here but this would really really fuck me off.

Or could tell rspca what he doing. Worrying thing to get big dogs encouraged to do surely. RSPCA have not resources and might pay a visit based on welfare of dogs/ are they being properly looked after iyswim.

I'm glad their protection is taken so seriously! I've decided that I'm going to ask the RSPCA to write him a letter informing him of the laws and of the danger to his own dog. Hopefully that way he might be embarrassed wondering who had observed his actions. You know old men usually care about the opinions of other old men and just dismiss young women, so hopefully he'll think it was one of his comrades that did it. And I'm going to tell his neighbour across the road that we should stop encouraging them to come here and invite her to leave some cat food for them at the park with me

This is horrific. British wildlife are persecuted enough, particularly badgers and foxes. Completely agree that we should live in harmony with them, we’re in a village and everytime I see a new housing development go up, can’t help but think of all the little lives that have lost their homes 😔

Report him 100%

Good luck getting the RSPCA to give a shit. In my experience they are utterly useless.
The neighbours feeding the foxes should really stop though, it doesn’t help the foxes and it’s not a good idea to encourage them as they can and do attack other animals.

He’s a piece of ish. I love foxes, they are kind creatures my cat chases them and they run, my dog plays or tries to play with them.
They really have a bad name for no reason, they’re just noisy but cause no harm and kill rats which would be in our homes.

As everyone else said report

@TheOriginalEmu

Good luck getting the RSPCA to give a shit. In my experience they are utterly useless. The neighbours feeding the foxes should really stop though, it doesn’t help the foxes and it’s not a good idea to encourage them as they can and do attack other animals.

In that case perhaps I will forge a letter, I'm sure someone on fiverrr could do a decent job of it for me

@nalabae

He’s a piece of ish. I love foxes, they are kind creatures my cat chases them and they run, my dog plays or tries to play with them. They really have a bad name for no reason, they’re just noisy but cause no harm and kill rats which would be in our homes.

As everyone else said report

I’m not sure you can say that foxes are “kind creatures” - they are wild carnivores and like a PP I’ve seen the carnage they can cause in a chicken run. Nonetheless, what this guy is doing is grim.

Tell the police he's breaking the law xx

I like foxes personally.

I do understand why some round here have mixed feelings though. Not that they would ever hurt them obv.

In London in general they are doing v well for years. So many around and they are totally not fussed about humans. See them wandering about in day all time, they don't mind if eg you come round corner fox right there. Which I like! Looking at Google just now for OP info, things saying behaviour akin to comfort level cats dogs.

They do go through the bins. And they do make s racket at night fighting shagging etc.

Report to the police and local council. Hunting with dogs is a criminal offence.

But stop putting food out, it doesn't help foxes but encourages rats.

And foxes aren't cute cuddly creatures, they kill a lot of small prey, take ground nesting bird eggs, chickens etc.

Mind you when it comes to wildlife getting comfy in human areas. I'd rather them than polar bears!!!

You'd need to prove intent to kill rather than to just chase them off the property.

It isn't illegal for someone to flush foxes off property with one dog, the law specifies it is illegal to hunt with a pack of dogs (more than two) with the intent that the dogs kill the fox - the reason its been so hard to stop hunts actually killing foxes is you can simply claim you were flushing them, the fox appeared accidentally whilst you were hunting a scent trail... and it was not your intent.

The law doesn't really protect foxes, you can snare them (with legal snares, yes you read that correctly we have legal types of snares in the uk), you can shoot them, you can flush them out of somewhere with a dogs, you can flush them to guns, you can send a terrier down underground to flush a fox out (only one terrier underground at a time), you can flush them out to then be killed by a bird of prey.

So there is nothing illegal about using a dog to chase a fox off your property, nor is it illegal if your dog flushes a fox on a walk and kills it.

Morally, ethically... those are a different matter of course!

I know foxes don't attack children/cats/dogs erm yes they do! Maybe THIS fox hasn’t but yes it does happen