to wonder why foxes get run over by cars, starved where possible etc, but diabetic dogs get insulin injections?

[pukkapatch]

both are four legged mammals. so why does one species get so much love and attention and care thrown at it, but the other doesnt?
i dont understand this.

bad fox minkvelvet.

It should have waited until the children had gone inside

The foxes round our way are beautiful, healthy and noble-looking, but they crafty and pesky, and routinely break into chicken runs to slaughter way more chickens than they could possibly eat.

I had a cat once that ate its own babies. Perhaps I should have turfed it out.

we have a fox living behind a big pampas grass in our garden,he came out a few weeks ago in the daytime and i took a picture of him lying on our lawn .I sent it to the local paper and they printed it.

hercules- was it disturbed by something? Many creatures that give birth to very immature will do that if stressed, including creatures like rabbits that are normally vegetarian.

It was a fairly young cat and I think it ate them for the nourishment.

OMG you cannot be serious......they are not the same species ......and they are VERMIN fgs!

aw can you put it on your profile mumylin?

we have foxes here, if people leave out so much rubbish, foxes will come out and eat it.

i'd prefer more foxes to people.

Please, somebody explain to me what the thread title means????

Do diabetic dogs just 'get insulin injections' though? Or do they get taken to the vet by their owner who presumably then pays or is insured for the insulin injections?

It's not like a dog without an owner could wander into the local NHS walk-in clinic and ask for an insulin jab, is it? I'm sure if people own a fox they probably take it to the vet if it gets ill.

I'm sure dogs that get eaten in the countries that see them as legitimate food don't get the sort of treatment as ours. 'Tis culcha, innit.

I took it to mean that we cheerfully kill foxes, but save their close cousins, domestic dogs with as much diligence as is possible. Personally I think the difference is that dogs wait to be fed while foxes just help themselves. I think it annoys people.

And very good point, SueBaroo- if one's pet were a fox, one would not be personally attempting to run it over.

I think foxes are beautiful animals and I wouldn't personally hurt one deliberately, but they don't just kill for food - they kill for fun. I've seen a fox kill a newborn lamb while its mother was birthing its twin, which the fox went on to kill as well. They have been known to (regularly) kill every chicken in a coop and just leave them lying there - so not for food at all.

I'd love a pet fox, but they are wild so I would never get one. I hate fox hunting and living in the countryside means there is loads of it. If you see a fox kill one of your chickens fair enough but when like my mum's friend you borrow a horse and hounds and you go hunting depsite owning no land, no chickens and living in the middle of a town. It just annoys me so much

Ah but, Kayzr, in theory they are not hunting live foxes any more. It's been banned- they're only allowed to do drag hunts (dead fox in bag used to lay trail for hounds).

Yeah I know, it still makes me feel sick tho. The dogs get shot when they get too old to go out so the dogs get a crap life too.

You don't want to know how and what the dogs get fed either. Let's just say it's designed to encourage the pack mentality...

foxes are just what they are - vermin to some (and they can be a serious nuisance), beautiful to others. I love and respect ALL animals but am not sentimental about them, so what if they kill for fun (am not sure this is true tho) domestic cats do too.

am surprised at idea of anyone deliberately hitting a fox and risking damage to vehicle but you know it's not doing their population any harm whatsoever

am a vegetarian and reasonably committed animal rights type person but also a country girl at heart with no qualms about fox hunting (of course there are still real hunts) and so on - however if I found an injured one I would take it to a wildlife rescue/hospital via my local vet

am having small chuckle at the 'pack' idea of domesticated dogs though, they are so far removed from their wolf ancestry these days - not that it's not interesting as long as it doesn't lead to ridiculous rank-reduction techniques

Yeah My mum saw a program about it a few weeks ago and decided to ring me and tell me.

Vacua - I dont often hear others saying that dogs are so far removed from wolfs so the whole pack thing and pecking order is pointless. I have read a bit on it and found it interesting. You don't often find many people of the similar views though.

Vacua, as you are a country girl, you know how they are kept and fed. Although they are somewhat tamer to humans than a fox, they are still not your average domestic pooch.

How are they fed, duchesse? Out of interest.

sorry, you meant packs of dogs and not some hybrid human/dog pack to be arranged in a weird hierarchy

thought they were just fed on raw offal or is it worse?

Dead cows are expensive to dispose of. The local hunt picks up our neighbours'. As I understand it, some hunts just dump the carcass in the middle of their pen and let them get on with it.