I hate foxes

[Faciadipasta]

Honestly I HATE them. I mean I know they look sort of nice but they are just awful. I've taken to trying to shoot them with a super soaker like a crazy woman not that it makes any bloody difference.
They scream all night, that horrible noise that sounds like someone being murdered. They have figured out how to get into our 'fox proof' food waste bins so we often go out to see manky bits of food strewn around. And if we manage to keep ours somewhere they can't get to it then a neighbour will have probably forgotten so it will still be up the pavement. We had to stop using the milkman because they figured out how to knock the milk bottles over so the foil lid would be dislodged and then milk would go everywhere and stink, and they'd probably only lick a little bit of it and just leave the rest in a big smelly puddle, they terrorise my poor cat, they dig my grass and they like to mark their territory with diarrhoea. Leaving little pools of it on our stuff. There's a load which has gone partly on the wall, then run down it and pooled at the bottom this morning. Ugh. Any ideas how I can get the little fuckers to bugger off? We've tried those noise things now and they make no difference.
There is a massive problem in this area. If you remember the news story where a fox went into a house and killed a baby a few years back that wasn't far from here...
Help!

I live in a rural (but large) village. Occasionally see one dead on the side of the road or rarely after dark in the lanes, but never in my garden

@DorritLittle agreed. Seems there's very some evil people on here. Their poor children.

I used to love them, and don’t care about noise they make etc they can’t help that .. but they do seem to torment our dog deliberately. They poo all around the house since we got him, at the front, at the back, everywhere, on our milk we used to have delivered, on the dogs toys, on our garden chairs everywhere. Big massive runny splats So gone right off them now.

Correct and they they'll more than likely get interrupted and can't collect the rest.

Problem fox.. ffs like it's doing it just to be antisocial.

I guess this thread is like marmite.

I'm rural. My Dad has permission to shoot vermin on around four farms locally (shotgun and rifle licences / certificates vetted by police)

Foxes here have killed our chickens for fun. Repeatedly. But then, so did a local Jack Russell with a lax, elderly owner (not ageist, owner was around the same age as my Dad - mid 70's) Dad was furious. Reason being, you can control your dog / keep it on a leash (preferably not an extendable one, as they can do some damage before you've even noticed!)

We've also had teenagers break in and steal all our geese and ducks on Christmas eve. Horrible to have to deal with.

Believe me, I don't think anyone would take kindly to us shooting old men, teenagers or Jack Russells. Foxes and other vermin do need to be despatched on a regular basis, though. And that's how we deal with it in the rural community. Urban foxes seem to be a more difficult issue both morally, and environmentally. The answer is the same however (you have to either accept or take action)

It's like getting used to killing your own food source.

They are in survival mode due to their natural habitat being depleted. One day they will probably become extinct along with other British wildlife because of humans intolerance towards them.

All of which were proven to NOT be a fox. Amazing coincidence that the family dog usually gets rehomed/never existed after any report of a fox attacking a baby/child.

They hide every time they go back, and if they get interrupted by e.g. humans while moving their kill they won't go back. But if they kill in large amounts it is to store food. It's pretty basic fox knowledge which has been said a few times now.

A fox killed my cat 😪

My neighbours on both sides leave food out for them so that they live between the gardens! I don’t get it myself..

Here in Australia they're an invasive pest and I don't think I know anybody who wouldn't shoot one as soon as they see it.

Bloody foxes. You can have your rabbits back too!

Can’t believe you have many rabbits left after viral haemorrhaging disease has done its thing. It killed 95% of Spanish rabbits (and therefore, indirectly, nearly made the Iberian lynx extinct). I rarely see a rabbit where I live in the U.K. now. Used to be hundreds of them. I find it very sad.

Someone witnessed a fox killing a cat near me too.

I do wonder how many of the fox lovers on here eat meat? How many tolerate rats, mice, spiders or fleas in their homes?

People really shouldn't feed foxes, it just encourages overpopulation and that's when you start getting real problems.

FWIW I am an animal lover and don't eat meat. I grew up in the countryside and saw the aftermath of foxes vs chicken and lambs. Faxes absolutely are pests and shouldn't be encouraged and I can see why, in some circumstances, people feel the need to be rid of them. Much like I kill the fleas on my pets!

*foxes not faxes

This is a bit out there as a solution, but I read about it a few years ago.
In Mexico where they have a problem with packs of wild dogs, they control them by leaving out something that they like to lick that has birth control medication in it. I wonder if you can get birth control cheaply on the internet and leave it in a bowl of water for them? It’s more effective when the males and the females drink it. As a method it’ll been massively effective on the rat population in New York.

Fleas are a parasite. Foxes aren't HTH.

Someone witnessed a fox killing a cat near me too.

I do wonder how many of the fox lovers on here eat meat? How many tolerate rats, mice, spiders or fleas in their homes?

We used to have an outdoor cat who killed plenty of wildlife including squirrels on rare occasion. The stats on their kills are high and they're not killing for food as they're fed at home. Hunting instinct? Fun? (Fun being slightly tongue in cheek reference to a pp's post).

I don't eat meat and I have a house cat (ragdoll) who deters the mice who used to visit. She's never had fleas being a house cat. Spiders don't bother me, though she (cat) enjoys chasing those.

Foxes are not parasites, however. Understandable if occasionally they need to be shot to protect livestock, as I said earlier, but I strongly object to blood sports and hunting them for fun, in packs with horses and dogs, which is a different thing entirely.

Apparently the likelihood of a fox killing a cat is extremely rare (Google)

we all feed the foxes on our close, houses back into fields. They are beautiful. They bring their cubs now too.
They are trying to survive, winter is hard for them.
The neighbour hood cats hang out with the foxes in the evening, it’s so strange seeing them all in a group together.
We have Guinea pigs who live outdoors in a heated chicken coop/run. The foxes sit near them and Guinea pigs go right up and sniff them through their run. The foxes are waiting for someone to come out with grub. No interest in the Guinea pigs at all. But they are in fox proof accommodation, because if they become hungry enough they will try.
I can’t shed a tear for a chicken farmer who loses birds to wildlife. He’s not planning on them living long fulfilling lives anyway.
Any human getting pissy over wildlife shitting outdoors ( you know because it’s antisocial) needs a good think.
Humans don’t do antisocial activities or damage the environment at all do they?
What part of uk are you? No baby has been killed by a fox, why spread lies?
There a gorgeous video of tame foxes laughing when having their bellies tickled. Funniest noise ever.
Some people don’t give a fuck about animals full stop use them abuse them want cheap produce from them so they are condemned to miserable short lives of suffering.
Some people on here are intolerant nasty bastards. Losing their shit because a fox crapped on their plastic lawn or little Tommy’s football.
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Sentimental rubbish. They have plenty of land to roam, they just know where the easy pickings are. Less than 5 pc of the UK is built on

Well said.

I'd definitely be more upset if a human shat on my shoe or little Tommy's football.

Of course their natural habitat isn't shrinking so far that they need to come into towns for food. They come into towns and thrive so well because food is discarded everywhere, and increasingly there are absolute fools who will actually feed them.

My house was built before 1900. I don't feel guilty about encroaching on their land, thank you very much.

They are absolutely booming in population. They are not an endangered species like the tiger FGS. DH had to drive me to A&E (10 minutes drive, London) at 3am one morning. We saw at least 20 foxes out and about on our route. It's really quite sinister.

They are horrid little pests.