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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Neighbour feeding foxes

41 replies

wonreasleyy · 28/12/2025 20:56

How would you feel about this ? There is fox poo in our garden, they’re not scared, play in the garden and sleep in the middle of the grass in daylight, there seems to be two of them (not sure they all look the same don’t they) we’ve only just moved and haven’t let the kids in the garden yet but I’m worried about the poo ! I really don’t need clearing fox poo every morning as another chore in my already full hands !

Would I be unreasonable to ask neighbour to stop feeding them ? And how would I even ask them without coming across like one of those neighbours ?

OP posts:
MadamNoo · 28/12/2025 21:42

I know this sounds scare mongering but twin babies were mauled by a fox in their bedroom near where we lived in london when the kids were small - you can find the news story - and the same year a fox wandered into our living room one evening when the back door was open in a hot summer. I like seeing the foxes at night at a distance passing the park but I would not encourage them to become more tame or used to being near the house.

BadgernTheGarden · 28/12/2025 21:42

We don't feed the foxes and neither do our neighbours, but we still have foxes. I can tell individuals apart by marks in their coats, their size and shape and their gait.

CinnamonBuns67 · 28/12/2025 21:43

I'd just concentrate on fox proofing your own garden. I wouldn't think your neighbour will stop because you want them to. I used to get foxes in my garden all the time as a kid as my cat went out to play with them until he passed away from old age.

Original poster
wonreasleyy · 28/12/2025 21:46

I understand my ocd isn’t anyone else’s problem, but my kids are my responsibility and if there is animal poo in my garden because foxes are (more than likely) here because there’s an easy food source, then my toddlers could end up poorly. There is literally shit all over the grass it’s not nice, neighbours both sides don’t have young children so I assume it’s not something for them to consider

OP posts:
cantbearsed247 · 28/12/2025 21:48

I have the neighbours cats crapping in my vegetable patch where there are things i want to eat, it's absolutely disgusting. If you didn't have fox shit you'd probably get cat shit instead.

I would say to the neighbours though would they mind not feeding the foxes because they're pooing in your garden and you're worried about the kids.

Pearlstillsinging · 28/12/2025 21:50

Seriestwo · 28/12/2025 21:25

Feeding urban foxes means they cross roads and that gets them killed

And the food left for them attracts rats. Just what you want in your garden!

XenoBitch · 28/12/2025 21:51

I think given that you have just moved there, you would be a CF for asking your neighbour to change their behaviour, which they could have been doing for years.

You will get fox poo anyway, and cat poo.

Puffykins · 28/12/2025 21:53

One of our local councillors wrote letters to the whole area asking everyone to stop feeding the foxes, explaining why, and explaining that it was the advice of the RSPCA - which I mention in case you can persuade one of yours to do the same, which then takes away the need for direct confrontation.

It hasn't stopped all the people who do feed them, but at least we've tried....

Oniranu · 28/12/2025 21:56

I’m a little surprised that people actually feed them. There was news of a fox entering someone’s house and mauling their twin babies. It’s been over 15 years ago but it made me very wary of foxes especially now that I have 2 little babies myself. Protect yourself OP. Cute or not, they are wild animals.

sanityisamyth · 28/12/2025 21:57

Fox shit is disgusting and they’re really nasty bloody animals. They kill for fun.

UncannyFanny · 28/12/2025 22:00

When we become extinct (which is a concrete certainty) what do people think is going to happen to foxes? Do you think they are all going to just starve to death? Of course they won’t. They’ll just carry on scavenging like they have done for millennia. The real problem here is human arrogance and thinking we are so important that they can’t possibly survive without us.

Original poster
wonreasleyy · 28/12/2025 22:03

The neighbours actually seem really lovely people so maybe if I word it correctly and truthfully, maybe they’ll understand. I don’t want my kids garden toys to be ruined or pissed on, some of these posts are concerning !
Im going to try the chilli and garlic thing first though, or ask dh to start weeing in a big tub and water the perimeter 😆😆

OP posts:
JaquelineHide · 28/12/2025 22:04

UncannyFanny · 28/12/2025 21:23

How would I feel about it? Are we neighbours? It’s rife with foxes here. I can’t use the garden half the time as it’s always covered in foxes crap or stinks from all the pissing over everything. It’s grim. I have neighbours who empty trays of meat out every night that ends up half buried and rotting all over my garden. The first night I moved in there was a gang of faces pressed against my patio doors looking in. I can’t leave any doors open because they try to come inside. All summer there’s up to half a dozen of them trashing my garden all night, then they sit out there when I get up. I get groups of cubs using my garden as a playground in summer and spraying parvovirus disease laden diarrhoea everywhere. Aww how cute! At night they sit under my bedroom window screaming and waking me up then they shit all over the path so it either gets trodden in or has to be washed every day. I get up at 5am and they are still there pissing and shitting all over everything and I have to wait til they are gone before I can let the puppy out. I’ve had to fence the patio off and they just jump over it and piss all up the doors. There’s just no reasoning with these rabid do gooders that hate humans and love the fluffy little foxes. I wish people would just stop treating them like pets and stop feeding the bloody things. They are wild animals. They survived millions of years before we appeared on the planet and they’ll continue to survive long after we are extinct. They don’t need us them. They are scavengers. They are hard wired to survive. If you want a pet go and buy one but don’t ruin your neighbours quality of life just because you’re too stupid to understand that you’re actually doing more harm than good by encouraging over breeding in small concentrated areas and messing up the natural distribution of foxes. You’re also putting them at risk of becoming too tame and getting too close to people who would not hesitate to hurt them. My council won’t do anything other than offer advice about how to deter them, which isn’t really much use when some gormless twat keeps dumping piles of food all over their garden next door encouraging dozens of the bloody things.

Yuck. I am an animal lover but that is revolting.

They kill for fun.

So do a lot of humans tbf.

SweeetFannyAdams · 28/12/2025 22:05

wonreasleyy · 28/12/2025 21:46

I understand my ocd isn’t anyone else’s problem, but my kids are my responsibility and if there is animal poo in my garden because foxes are (more than likely) here because there’s an easy food source, then my toddlers could end up poorly. There is literally shit all over the grass it’s not nice, neighbours both sides don’t have young children so I assume it’s not something for them to consider

But unless you and your neighbour are absolutely the only people in the area, the foxes are always going to cross your garden en route to their food source.

You can't tell everyone in the whole surrounding area to stop feeding them.

Yes, your kids might come across fox shit and it's not nice but they'll more than likely encounter it many times in their lives, in many places.

Skybluepinky · 28/12/2025 22:05

wonreasleyy · 28/12/2025 21:08

Big gardens, we have an old shed that isn’t used because it’s rotting so I’m wondering if they’ve dug underneath it ? I see them dig underneath the fences and go in the gardens either side.
Don’t get me wrong I think they’re really cute but it’s the fox poo I don’t like, I also have ocd and contamination is one of my worries.

Fox poo stinks, and once they start using your garden as a toilet it’s really hard to get rid of them good luck.

deeahgwitch · 28/12/2025 22:06

MadamNoo · 28/12/2025 21:42

I know this sounds scare mongering but twin babies were mauled by a fox in their bedroom near where we lived in london when the kids were small - you can find the news story - and the same year a fox wandered into our living room one evening when the back door was open in a hot summer. I like seeing the foxes at night at a distance passing the park but I would not encourage them to become more tame or used to being near the house.

I remember that in the news. It was awful. Those poor babies.
My neighbour’s dog got mange from a fox and it cost her €100s in vet’s fees to clear.
I bought 3 anti fox iltrasonic devices for the garden.
Didn’t make a whit of difference.
One fox would be sitting in front of the device in broad daylight sunning himself.

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