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.

As I said in the original post their previous dog has killed foxes. It doesn't take a particularly wild imagination.

Exactly! The people in this neighbourhood live nearby two beautiful parks. Do they think they can pick and choose only their preferred wildlife to share this space with?! It's so entitled

I think you are just trying to be offended and shocked by anything that I write.

I'm sorry they killed your rabbit, I know it's horrible to lose a pet! I do still love them as a part of nature, but like you said they aren't perfect creatures

film him and report him, training his dogs to attack other creatures makes them dangerous.

Some of these replies are nuts. I have ducks and chickens and constantly have fixes prowling and killing then. If I hear or see one I let the dogs out. They don't maul the fox they chase it away which is exactly what he was probably doing

who cares if they attack cats, dogs etc

they are native to this country and have a right to be here, its your look out if they eat your pets.

they are the only canine native to Britain and all we have left after we hunted all our other large animals like the boar and bears to extinction.

its sheer privilege to moan about wild animals eating your chosen pets or livestock unless its something freshly introduced like chinese mitten crabs or american cray fish then I think you have a right to moan about your fish farms, otherwise tough, learn to live with nature and stop being selfish.

domestic cats cause more trouble then foxes ever will and they dont even come from Europe at all, we can blame the Egyptians for domestic cats.

@Lhun96 I don’t think you are going to be able to do anything about the man letting his dog chase the foxes.

Whatever your opinion about foxes, people are allowed to let their dog chase them out of gardens. You might not like it, but they are allowed.

I let my (soft, stupid) dog out to chase foxes out of my garden. Their shit absolutely reeks and if they shit in my garden and my dog rolls in it my house stinks. They carry disease, and also fight in the night waking my dog up, who barks and wakes us up. Far easier to let the dog out to chase them out, they aren’t harmed and now do a detour round our garden. They have an entire golf course in front of our house to play on so I don’t feel too bad.

Forging a letter from the RSPCA is a mad idea, and if someone did that to me I would laugh and ignore it. Trying to get the RSPCA to do anything about a legitimate animal welfare problem is near enough impossible so I would be very sceptical that they would send me a letter about something completely legal.

You are worrying about a wild animal, doing wild animal things. They will more than likely be fine and learn not to go in the man’s garden.

"Some of these replies are nuts. I have ducks and chickens and constantly have fixes prowling and killing then. If I hear or see one I let the dogs out. They don't maul the fox they chase it away which is exactly what he was probably doing"

Agree with you @flippertyop. The world has gone bloody mad. Yes it is illegal to deliberately hunt a fox with a dog but there's nothing wrong with not wanting foxes in your garden for more reasons than I can be bothered to go through here.

Just as one person delights in seeng foxes, squirrels, pigeons etc etc, to another person they are disease spreading vermin. Out here in the countryside, if our dogs aren't already making sure there are no squirrels and foxes etc in the garden, I won't discourage them from doing so.

@Scarmble

"Some of these replies are nuts. I have ducks and chickens and constantly have fixes prowling and killing then. If I hear or see one I let the dogs out. They don't maul the fox they chase it away which is exactly what he was probably doing"

Agree with you @flippertyop. The world has gone bloody mad. Yes it is illegal to deliberately hunt a fox with a dog but there's nothing wrong with not wanting foxes in your garden for more reasons than I can be bothered to go through here.

Just as one person delights in seeng foxes, squirrels, pigeons etc etc, to another person they are disease spreading vermin. Out here in the countryside, if our dogs aren't already making sure there are no squirrels and foxes etc in the garden, I won't discourage them from doing so.

my mother grew up in the country they hated the local fox hunters, their dogs would kill anything, barging into gardens to kill peoples pets, anything that wasn't a dog was fair game to them.

you start teaching a dog to go chasing after and attacking smaller fluffy animals your asking for trouble.

We live in a London suburb. For complicated reasons we had a very much loved rescue duck as a pet in a heavily fortified garden. A local fox worked very hard to break in to our garden and killed the duck by biting off its head and leaving the body for my son to find.

The local foxes go through the bins, make a terrible noise during mating season, get into houses and steal shoes(!) and are a basic menace.

We have a lurcher, as laid back a dog as you can imagine. When the noise is too much in the night my husband takes him out and lets him off the lead. He chases the foxes away (never going to catch them, as they can climb up walls, like a cat etc). I don't think there is anything wrong with that. But appreciate is people have other opinions.

@VelvetChairGirl not to worry Velvet - I live in the country to and my dogs aren't fox hunting dogs 😂😂

[quote flippertyop]@VelvetChairGirl not to worry Velvet - I live in the country to and my dogs aren't fox hunting dogs 😂😂[/quote]
if you are teaching them to chase and attack smaller animals they will be.

dogs are not that bright nor are they discerning.

Op (and other townies here) please spend a bit more time in the countryside and educate yourself as to the nature of a fox.

example last year, we hatched 11 ducklings (my DDs birthday gift )l now have one Aylesbury duck left, despite having a 6 ft high enclosed run, twice my dcs have gone to feed their beloved ducks to find a fox had dug 6 inches under the sunk wire wire and left the ducks with heads eaten and bloodied bodies.....

My farmer neighbour has had a particularly persistant fox take 4 sets of twin lambs last year.....the ewe lays down to lamb the first one, which she tries to defend but HAS to lie down to have the second, whist the fox took her first to kill, the other three sets of twins on the same night were not eaten just mauled to death.
(Luckily a local gamekeeper came and shot the fox.)

As a child growing up on a farm l kept chickens at night in a stone barn, yet a determined fox chewed through a solid wooden door, killed 13 and ate one....it was a bloodbath....I was heartbroken.

They are the more vicious of our wild animals, just easy town pickings mean they rarely have to turn agressive as they can forage in bins....yet they will attack babies and young children, and small pets if the opportunity arises.

Feeding them and trying to tame them is sheer stupidity, let wild animals live in the countryside where they belong.

The neighbour chasing off the fox with his dog is neither here nor there, a fox would easily pop over a fence to escape, but is less likely to return to that particular garden, plus almost no dogs would actually attack only chase.

Sure l will be flamed but facts are facts.

Exactly! The people in this neighbourhood live nearby two beautiful parks. Do they think they can pick and choose only their preferred wildlife to share this space with?! It's so entitled

They’re not letting the dog chase foxes in the park though are they? If foxes stray onto their land (their garden is their dog’s territory after all and it may perceive a fox as a threat) the dog/owners are permitted to chase it out of the garden.

Irresponsible people feeding foxes and leaving bags of food rubbish out have contributed to foxes straying onto human properties. They’re wild animals who need to stay in the wild and hunt for food!

@VelvetChairGirl they seem to be Ok so far haven't killed anything small and furry including the cat or the ducks. I have however had a few foxes shot but sadly they always come back. I care more about my ducks than the fox I'm afraid

Two minutes I'm not enraged at all!

It's something I've seen a lot on MN on threads about other things.

To do with other topics. Info from person there doesn't count as evidence. Why report if nothing apart from statement person there. No 3rd party testimony, other sorts of corroboration then really no point. Etc.

I was just interested. I can think of loads of crimes would be nope to reporting.

That was all it was. I didn't really understand where you were coming from saying OP no evidence no point rspca.

In general surely it's a bad idea to put German shepherds out in order that they essentially go to attack.

I don't know really but sounds like s dangerous plan unless they v well trained. And prob not living in residential setting.

It's illegal. Call the police.

Training a dog to attack other animals is going to cause massive problems in the future because it won't only stick to foxes. It needs to be stopped and retrained.

And your boyfriend needs to understand that this is a deal breaker for you. He has to get how this makes you feel and support you if he is to deserve you.

It's an offence under the Hunting Act 2004:

www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/hunting-act-2004

Hos dog is out of control. I'd report to police on non emergency number and also rspca. As horrid as it is, I would try to film it too

The foxes will very rapidly learn to just not go into his garden. They're intelligent animals.

I have an L shaped garden, only half of which is visible from the back door. On one occasion I let my terrier out first thing in the morning and it turned out there was a cat in the part of the garden I couldn't see. Next thing I know there's a clatter as each it's ricocheting around the garden before the cat spotted an escape route. DDog loves a chase - it's normally squirrels - but has never actually caught or killed anything. Several years later and no other cat has ever set foot in my garden since - though one occasionally walks along the wall.

If there's an escape route from the garden, they will rapidly learn.

Not all of us in the countryside would be okay with a dog being set on a fox.

This may be an unpopular opinion, but owning livestock, I don't see an issue with shooting a fox that is repeatedly killing your animals, if you know how to use a gun properly and can get a clean shot to avoid unnecessary suffering. I wouldn't be able to do it myself, but I can see the need, sometimes, having discovered lambs and guard geese, among others, which had been mauled by foxes overnight. They often leave the body to come back for it later too, which can be distressing for an adult to see, never mind children. Dead livestock also usually means loss of income.

I don't agree with hunting, or killing a fox for sport. There are a few hunts nearby and they're just well-dressed thugs. They're actually more of a nuisance than any animal-type pest for trespassing on private land.

@Scarmble

"Some of these replies are nuts. I have ducks and chickens and constantly have fixes prowling and killing then. If I hear or see one I let the dogs out. They don't maul the fox they chase it away which is exactly what he was probably doing"

Agree with you @flippertyop. The world has gone bloody mad. Yes it is illegal to deliberately hunt a fox with a dog but there's nothing wrong with not wanting foxes in your garden for more reasons than I can be bothered to go through here.

Just as one person delights in seeng foxes, squirrels, pigeons etc etc, to another person they are disease spreading vermin. Out here in the countryside, if our dogs aren't already making sure there are no squirrels and foxes etc in the garden, I won't discourage them from doing so.

This. The vast majority of dogs will not engage with a fox. Chasing them off is not the same thing as “mauling” them, or even being trained to attack them However, foxes are canny creatures and will run away from encounters wherever possible, rather than fight. Numbers of foxes have risen, especially in urban and suburban areas, because of irresponsible people feeding foxes and leaving food rubbish out. Yet how many foxes killed by dogs have you seen? None, I would guess. Roadkill, maybe.

Try substituting the word “rats” for foxes.

What’s upsetting on this thread is hearing all the stories about foxes killing peoples pets, not a dog chasing foxes out of their own garden!

OP you are clearly biased because of the family of ‘lovely’ foxes living at the bottom of the garden but that is not the reality for most, you sound very naive.

There is some right nonsense on here. Foxes are not aggressive, they do not kill for fun, they rarely if ever attack cats or dogs, and there is bugger all proof of them attacking people. Will they kill all chickens in a run - yes, and then they will carry off the carcases to cache them, which leads people to think they kill for fun as they see the fox leaving the scene with dead animals still left there. If not interrupted the fox would come back for the rest. Does everyone like them - no, and fair enough, but they are not legally vermin - they are just an animal doing what an animal does.