Fox attack on baby.

[happyhunter123]

Actually, that was a surprisingly sensible article - considering the author is RABIDLY anti-hunting and has been a thorn in our sides for a long time. He has received quite substantial funding from LACS (though that was 'laundered' in an attempt to keep it secret) and from IFAW (there were attempts to disguise that too!)

Well, it's silly to suggest that reports of these attacks have been 'drummed up by the hunting lobby', don't you think? The antis are always wheeling him out anyway!

 

[Maesfen]

, or perhaps your farmers just don't snare and shoot them like they do in other areas?

We're very lucky in that we don't have many like that, never have, we're not a particularly big shooting area; yes there are small shoots but they're predominantly locals and they will take foxes if they upset their pheasants or ducks but not as a norm'. The only one most farmers get their hair off about are the badgers which are over running the place and causing untold damage. They're also regularly seen during the day now too which was unheard of before.

 

[ForeverBroke_]

I live in the countryside, so perhaps I'm not qualified enough to comment.. But are urban foxes REALLY that brave?! Not having a dig - just a general question.

IMO culling and whatever of urban/foxes would do nothing whatsoever. In two, three, five years the population would be back to what it had previously. Its also not addressing the problem, which as mentioned above is that of litter and people not treating wild animals as 'wild.'

I also wont start on how a fox would be the least of my worries if I was to leave the back door open..

 

[weebarney]

Has any of these fox attack people ever explained how in the middle of winter a fox just walks into their house?

 

[JanetGeorge]

Well, it's silly to suggest that reports of these attacks have been 'drummed up by the hunting lobby', don't you think? The antis are always wheeling him out anyway!

Of course it was silly - but mild by HIS standards!

 

[cptrayes]

Has any of these fox attack people ever explained how in the middle of winter a fox just walks into their house?

Yes. They lived in a Council house. There was a hole in the back door. The Council had it on their list to repair but had not got around to it. I think you will find a number of holes in doors or windows if you visit any typical Council housing estate of a reasonable size.


Why are some people so apparently desperate for this to be a made up incident?

 

[criso]

Or Dad didn't shut the front door properly when he went to pick up the other kids from school depending which paper you read.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/lond...tacks-boy-as-father-demands-cull-8492552.html

 

[EAST KENT]

Even out here,after the ban,foxes have multiplied.A local "free range" chook farm with more than adequate electric fencing was having problems,in one night of fox calling they nailed eleven.the neighbouring little wood had seven breeding earths in it,those too were dealt with.It used to be rare to see mangey foxes in the real country,not so now,and over crowding is one of the causes.Anyone up for forming the Bromley and Bexley foxhounds????

 

[weebarney]

Yes. They lived in a Council house. There was a hole in the back door. The Council had it on their list to repair but had not got around to it. I think you will find a number of holes in doors or windows if you visit any typical Council housing estate of a reasonable size.


Why are some people so apparently desperate for this to be a made up incident?

I'm not saying it made up just dont know what people are thinking leaving holes in their doors if thats the case, council house or not its no excuse just sounds lazy.

 

[weebarney]

if the door wasnt shut how did mam not feel the frickin freezin winter air coming through the house? You cant have a window cracked open in my house at the moment without feelin like you're in a fridge!

 

[JanetGeorge]

I live in the countryside, so perhaps I'm not qualified enough to comment.. But are urban foxes REALLY that brave?! Not having a dig - just a general question.

IMO culling and whatever of urban/foxes would do nothing whatsoever. In two, three, five years the population would be back to what it had previously. Its also not addressing the problem, which as mentioned above is that of litter and people not treating wild animals as 'wild.'

I also wont start on how a fox would be the least of my worries if I was to leave the back door open..

I lived in Elephant & Castle and then Kennington (during the week) for 3 years in the mid to late '90s. I was surprised by just how many foxes I saw - and also how unafraid of humans many of them appeared to be. Hell, on the morning of the 1st Countryside March, I left my flat about 6am and a big dog fox was strolling across the back parking area of the flats. I had my JR terrier on the lead and he nearly pulled me over, and barked like hell. The fox was only about 50 yards away - and continued his stroll! And a couple of months earlier I took 2 foxhound pups up to London to be collected there by their huntsman (long story - but they had been stolen and recovered in the Midlands - but had to go back to Kent.) On the Sunday night I took them for a long walk down round the Oval to tire them out a bit (so they wouldn't wreck my flat) and I nearly lost them several times as they spotted foxes and tried to chase them - again - the foxes showed NO sign of concern at the sight (and sound) of two foxhounds trying to hurtle at them - dragging me - despite the fact we were very close!

The one thing I DID notice when out with friends at night was that very few people actually spotted them. Maybe they saw them and mistook them for a cat - but most of the time they just didn't see them until I pointed them out!

 

[cptrayes]

Or Dad didn't shut the front door properly when he went to pick up the other kids from school depending which paper you read.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/lond...tacks-boy-as-father-demands-cull-8492552.html

And is that a crime now?

I repeat my question, why do some people seem to be so absolutely desperate to believe that this was not a fox attack?

 

[Nancykitt]

Very interesting, Janet - but yes, my experience is that urban foxes are pretty fearless. I think there was a report in H&H last year about a man being 'accosted' by a fox in an alleyway on his way back from the shops and he gave it his garlic bread just to get it off him. We laughed about it at the time, but it's not funny at all really.

Two of my friends lived in south Essex until quite recently. When I went to stay with them about five years ago they told me that they had a 'pet' fox who would come to their garden to feed and they bought fresh chicken pieces for him. Sure enough, every day the fox would turn up for his chicken pieces - absolutely no fear at all - and would definitely have come into the kitchen if he could. At one stage he turned up with several cubs. They thought that all this was wonderful - presumably because they'd only ever lived in towns and there was a lot of novelty attached to seeing a real live fox so close. They eventually saw the error of their ways - the foxes became a terrible nuisance with their fighting, excrement everywhere - many of the neighbours called in pest control. Now my friends have moved to a rural area they have a very different view of foxes!
On Saturday's meet one of the members, who is a young gamekeeper, said that he is convinced someone is releasing urban foxes on to his patch. They stroll around with no fear at all. He saw a fox caught in some fence wire last week and went to free it, expecting it to be very scared (as a wild fox would be), but this one showed no fear and gave him a very nasty bite on the hand. Even after it had been freed, it actually went for him.
Don't doubt it - these animals are a real pest.

 

[cptrayes]

I'm not saying it made up just dont know what people are thinking leaving holes in their doors if thats the case, council house or not its no excuse just sounds lazy.

You don't know enough about tenants. My friends have Professionals as tenants at £1,000 a month rent who won't get a screwdriver and put a screw back in if it comes out.

May be these people just didn't have the money to pop to B&Q and buy a piece of wood, a saw, a screwdriver, a drill, and some screws? People on council estates tend not to be that flush with cash.

 

[Nancykitt]

I repeat my question, why do some people seem to be so absolutely desperate to believe that this was not a fox attack?

I think it's because they just do not want to face up to the fact that foxes can be a problem.
It's shattering their illusion of the 'beautiful wildlife' thing.

When this was discussed on the radio just after the incident, people were coming on saying things like 'How can people accuse foxes of this sort of behaviour? We've destroyed so much of our wildlife, we need to protect everything we've got left!'
Some callers tried to point out that not only is the urban fox a wild animal out of its natural environment (and therefore potentially a problem), but also that rural foxes do a lot of damage to various forms of wildlife.

The problem is that too many people simply have no idea about wildlife, conservation and so on. While I think that programmes like 'Springwatch' have many positives, it can't be denied that it's pretty much all lovely fluffy cutey stuff and we know that life's just not like that.

 

[cptrayes]

I think it's because they just do not want to face up to the fact that foxes can be a problem.
It's shattering their illusion of the 'beautiful wildlife' thing.
.

I can see what you mean. They were absolutely rife in Bristol 22 years ago, I dread to think how many there are now the bins are only collected every 2 weeks.

I understand that they find the smell of baby poo extremely attractive - perhaps because it signals the presence of something small and helpless. I wonder if culling would do anything, or if parents just have to stop leaving any small child unattended in a garden or any room with an open door/downstairs window.

 

[weebarney]

And is that a crime now?

I repeat my question, why do some people seem to be so absolutely desperate to believe that this was not a fox attack?

No one has said it a crime! Just very strange people do not notice having a front door open in winter. Sorry but i dont take word for word everything i read in the papers!

 

[weebarney]

You don't know enough about tenants. My friends have Professionals as tenants at £1,000 a month rent who won't get a screwdriver and put a screw back in if it comes out.

May be these people just didn't have the money to pop to B&Q and buy a piece of wood, a saw, a screwdriver, a drill, and some screws? People on council estates tend not to be that flush with cash.

I know no matter how poor i was i'd do my best my newborn baby not to have a hole in my door. Piece of wood from a skip, borrow a screwdriver or just push something against the door. Of course you will always get lazy people who cant be ar!!d to lift a finger and just want to blame someone else.

 

[criso]

And is that a crime now?

I repeat my question, why do some people seem to be so absolutely desperate to believe that this was not a fox attack?

No but it really is very stupid in London.

I can think of 3 personal experiences where doors were left open. A house I lived in where the front door was left open, workmen popped out to get some supplies and a burglar was straight in. It was split into bedsits with individual locks and I was lucky the workmen came back and disturbed them just as they got to mine

Current flat, front door to communal hall was left open once last summer: kids from the block over the road came in and played running up and down the stairs and broke bannister rails; Last time, only a few weeks ago someone coming in late didn't shut the door properly, tramp got in and was sleeping on the stairs outside my neighbours flat. A friend of mine was burgled in the summer when he left a ground floor bathroom window open a crack while he popped to the shops.

If you leave a front door open in London someone opportunist will get in, human or animal, and if your wife is upstairs and your baby is downstairs then maybe you need to be extra careful. I'm sure he will be from now on.

I get really annoyed with these moral panics that get stirred up for non events. Assuming the article someone posted is reasonably factual in the incidents it refers to, someone was saying the same thing about the "fox problem" in 1973. The incidents it lists are not that common and don't justify the overreaction.

And to suggest there are packs of asbo foxes running round the London streets waiting to take down the unwary which will be solved by sending a pack of foxhounds down Oxford St is silly.

Seems simple to me, don't feed them, keep your front doors and ground floor windows closed (and locked if you want to keep out human intruders) and make an effort to keep the streets free of waste food which may mean going back to weekly rubbish collection and more frequent street cleaning especially around takeaways.

But it does make a great story for the Daily Mail to get outraged about.

 

[criso]

Some callers tried to point out that not only is the urban fox a wild animal out of its natural environment

But is it out of its environment? foxes are very adaptable and opportunist and if the article was accurate and this was raised in 1973, have been living with us at least 40 years.

There have always been wild animals that have adapted to take advantage of our lifestyles and live alongside us and foxes are now there along with rats, mice, pigeons and squirrels as part of an urban environment.

 

[Hunters]

The only answer is to hunt them down on mopeds...., londoners generally have a dislike of horses and their mess.

'Asbos' could then be issued to offending foxes. & the RSPCA could issue leaflets with a helpline number on for any distressed foxes