Fox attacks baby

Gingerwitch said:
Rosie - i am also not defending or protecting the "fox" but what i am saying is basically if you are not there for your children then things may happen - i really cannot comprehend a mother not being able to hear its 9 month old children - it just does not sit in any way shape or form with the way i have been brought up - or event expect mums to behave. I actually am very anti children - do not have them, do not want them, BUT i certainly do not want them to get hurt - this mums parenting skills certainly leave a lot to be desired - it may have been a fox attack or a dog or rat, it may have been a fire or one of the children choking - which ever it was 99.9% of parents would have know in an instance - ie they would have been in the same room, had a squawk box etc - at the end of the day these were 9 month old children - okay not at the most vunerable stage but pretty close - and to that end the parenting skills are questionalbe - and as i stated earlier had this been a high rise flat single mum the social would be in there now interveiwing, blaming and possibly taking into care.
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Crikey - has this turned into a parenting witch hunt now... Parents are allowed to have lives too. I have two kids and never used a baby alarm. I would not use one at night because they are pointless noisy things that keep parents awake when we should be catching up on very infrequent sleep. If a baby were to choke - not sure what on in their cot - but if they were, you are pretty unlikely to hear that anyway on an alarm.

As for child stealing - do you actually know how rare that is?

Fact is, there are too many foxes now because their numbers are not being controlled properly. Everyone knew that once the fox population in the countryside reached a critical level they would spill into the towns and cities as there is a plentiful supply of food.

I was driving through Ruislip the other evening at 9pm and saw 3 adult foxes - all of them were quite happy to trot across the road in front of my moving car without a care in the world and certainly no fear. I have seen a domestic cat move faster when it is at risk of being run down!

As for leaving your house door or windows open - well, I think this is a no brainer surely in hot weather.
 
Seafarer said:
Urban foxes are certainly very different creatures. They are very bold and march about the streets in broad daylight - we even have one who has a snooze on the railway platform in the afternoon (though he does move if anybody gets *too* close).

I don't buy the idea that there are armies of people feeding them; I've lived in London for 22 years and I don't know anybody who would do that - or who would try to entice them into the garden (who wants a lawn covered in fox s**t?).

They are tolerated because on the whole they don't do much harm and it's cheaper just to let them be (the councils are too taken up with the cockroach and rat problem - especially in Hackney).

Foxes live in the city because it is convenient. Why bother exerting yourself breaking into the hen house when you can stroll down to the station and wait for the drunken commuters to appear, dropping their Kentucky Fried Chicken? ;)
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Totally agree with this, Seafarer.

I too live in an urban area and see foxes all the time, mostly in the very early hours of the morning. They are a totally different animal to the rural fox and I doubt this incident means we'll be seeing a load of huntsmen galloping through the streets, jumping over wheelie bins and garden fences.

And no, I'm not an ignorant urban "bunnyhugger". ;)

I certainly have not come across anyone who would feed the local foxes and I have mostly observed them scavenging for themselves, and our local council tolerates them.

My thoughts are with the family at this time, it is a terrible thing to happen.


Also - Gingerwitch is correct when she says this:

At the end of the day we have driven foxes and much wildlife into areas they would not normally frequent and to coin a phrase - you reep what you sow...
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with everyone saying how urban foxes favour convenience, why the hell would one go all the way upstairs, past the kitchen into the babies room and climb into their cots to savage them? No matter how bold they are I find it very unlikely.
 
What could be tastier to a fox than a chubby little leg/arm of a whimpering creature?Maybe someone out there is creating havoc by making fox "squeakers" with baby gurgles instead of rabbit in distress noises??
 
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