What would you have done?

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Silverspring

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I was hacking at the weekend and had to do a little detour as the game keeper was out shooting into the wooded area, my girl isn't a fan of the guns so we went a different route.

Got back to the yard and two other girls arrived back from a different hack, they had been in a field close to the shoot (well behaved horses!) and had seen a fox stuck in a fence unable to free itself.

I ask if they had signalled to the game keeper as I wouldn't want the fox dieing a long slow death stuck in a fence. But they hadn't instead they had called the RSPCA and an officer was on the way to 'rescue' the fox. I was a bit taken back as it would never occur to me to call the RSPCA for vermin, I mean if I saw a rat in distress I'd hit it with a shovel not call the RSPCA!

So would you have called the gamekeeper or the RSPCA? Or is there something else to do in these situations when no gamekeeper is to hand
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See now, some people wouldnt look at a fox as vermin so its already influential to the answers your going to get.

I'd probably RSPCA'd it, im guessing the chances are the game keeper would of killed it? (dont shoot me down if he wouldnt of, ive dont know what game keepers do)so to give it a fighting chance i'd of called the rspca.

*Yes im one of 'those' soppy people who try to save all animals *Yawn*
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I'd never call the RSPCA ever....they're as useful as a chocolate fireguard and only interested in money and publicity.

Gamekeeper from me too.....or the nearest farmer with a shutgun
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A few years ago some dog walkers were on the footpath that ran by my yard, and they came in to tell me there was a sick pigeon outside my gate, and did I think I could call the vet please.
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A (shooting) friend of mine was there at the time, and I said to him, oh go and have a look will you - while the concerned dog walkers hung about - and he walked back into the yard with the pigeon in one hand and its head in the other
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I don't remember them speaking to me after that
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Gamekeeper from me too.....or the nearest farmer with a shutgun
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Ditto (couldn't think of a better way to say it
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)
 
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See now, some people wouldnt look at a fox as vermin so its already influential to the answers your going to get.

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Yeah, you can say that but its a fact that they are classed in the same league as rats etc which is vermin. That's a fact, not an opinion.

I agree with most people on here, just shoot it, much kinder to the animal.
 
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A few years ago some dog walkers were on the footpath that ran by my yard, and they came in to tell me there was a sick pigeon outside my gate, and did I think I could call the vet please.
confused.gif


A (shooting) friend of mine was there at the time, and I said to him, oh go and have a look will you - while the concerned dog walkers hung about - and he walked back into the yard with the pigeon in one hand and its head in the other
blush.gif


I don't remember them speaking to me after that
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PMSL

I'd have gone for the gamekeeper who was already in the area.
 
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See now, some people wouldnt look at a fox as vermin so its already influential to the answers your going to get.

I'd probably RSPCA'd it, im guessing the chances are the game keeper would of killed it? (dont shoot me down if he wouldnt of, ive dont know what game keepers do)so to give it a fighting chance i'd of called the rspca.

*Yes im one of 'those' soppy people who try to save all animals *Yawn*
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I'm with you. We found a poorly fox in our back garden and called them and they came to get it within an hour. It was a beautiful creature, i wanted it to either have a chance or be put down nicely.

Even my dad wanted to call rspca n he's not soppy at all.

There's not exactly many people with shot guns round here though.
 
Personally, Id have gone back with a pair of wire cutters and a blanket and a gun. Stuff it's head in the blanket, check out for injuries. If uninjured, cut it out and let it go, if injured, shot it. Simple!
 
can honestly say dont know
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,i know they are a pest and have seen what they can do to peoples pets first hand(farmer had a few peacocks and foxes ripped them to pieces and left them,have seen pet rabbits ripped to bits by foxes),i have nooo problem with them being shot or hunted but i personally couldnt hurt it myself,am the same with any animal though,had a barney with hubby the other day for chucking a poorly fish in the bin
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(was past saving,but how the hell do you humanely kill a fish???lol)
I could have gone either way just as long as i wasnt there to see end result
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i'd have phoned a friend lol
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at least 3 of them would have loved to have come and put mr foxy out of his misery, certainly wouldn't have phoned the RSPCA
 
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Gamekeeper for sure. I suppose the RSPCA are now going to nurse it back to health and then re-release it into the wild. what a waste of donations.

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Phew! so it's not only me that would have gone for the gamekeeper. I don't judge anyone that would call the RSPCA, it really is a personal choice I just would never have thought of doing it.

Re the above, no the RSPCA took too long getting there. Apparently they arrived and went to look for the fox with one of the people that had reported it and it was gone, alas the gamekeeper had did his job well and found the injured animal and 'dealt' with it as he saw fit.

The officer was apparently fine about is as they realised he was a gamekeeper and that this was how he had chosen to deal with what he had found, he was also unaware that anyone was one their way to the fox so he could not have left it.
 
Gamekeeper. Similar thing happened to me a few years ago when I found a deer caught up in a fence. It was quite weak and had probably been there at least overnight. I called my YO who is also one of the local farmers and the whole thing was dealt with quickly and discreetly. The RSPCA even if I'd thought of calling them would have taken hours to arrive, thereby prolonging the deer's distress.
 
I would have given my OH a call! He'd put it out of its misey with a 12-bore.
Although I do like vickyguns suggestion that if it wasn't injured and it could be released then let it go.
I once found a fox-cub tangled up in the football nets behind our school. I cut the nets then was about to let it go when a softy teacher came over and took the fox-cub away and said she'd ring the RSPCA!
I said the kindest thing is to let it go but she insisted. Some people are cruel by trying to be kind!
 
HAHA finally like minded people!!

as some of you knwo im a vet nurse and we are ALL sick and fed up of 'rescuing' foxes, pigeons, badgers, etc etc etc

most of past saving and bringing them in is just prolonging their suffering
what did they think the RSPCA wud do - seriously they end up back at the clinic and get PTS struggling to find a vein to euthanse it with pentabarbitol - its cruel as its takes forever and is stressful - a 12 bore does the job quickly and is over there and then!!

this really is one of my pet hates - LET NATURE BE NATURE!
 
I would have called the gamekeeper. Not because the fox is viewed as vermin - but because it was an injured animal in distress.
 
Gamekeeper definitely - the RSPCA have better things to do with their time, like saving animals that actually matter.
 
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Gamekeeper definitely - the RSPCA have better things to do with their time, like saving animals that actually matter.

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Foxes matter don't they???
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Gamekeeper definitely - the RSPCA have better things to do with their time, like saving animals that actually matter.

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Only if there is a TV crew there...Friend found an injured dog (thought front leg was broken) RSPPCA told them they were not coming out tonight (about 8pm) tie it to a tree and they would try and get out in the morning....WTF
 
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Gamekeeper definitely - the RSPCA have better things to do with their time, like saving animals that actually matter.

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PMSL, my thoughts exactly! I would call the RSPCA for any domestic animal in trouble but when it come to wildlife I think I would always get the gamekeeper. I know he would free wildlife if it was uninjured, he would rather stalk a dear than kill it while it was trapped, I also think he has far more experince of how to untrap animals quickly and effictively casuing the least stress than an RSPCA officer would.
 
I would only call someone to kill an animal if it looked very severely injured, otherwise I would try [by whatever means] to help it, whether it was a fox, rabbit or bird.

I am not a total softie, and have no compunction about an animal being killed if that is the best thing for it, but I would far rather help an animal for it to be returned to the wild than have it killed because it is the easier option.
 
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See now, some people wouldnt look at a fox as vermin so its already influential to the answers your going to get.

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Yeah, you can say that but its a fact that they are classed in the same league as rats etc which is vermin. That's a fact, not an opinion.

I agree with most people on here, just shoot it, much kinder to the animal.

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Where does it state they are classed in the same league as rats?!
 
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See now, some people wouldnt look at a fox as vermin so its already influential to the answers your going to get.

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Yeah, you can say that but its a fact that they are classed in the same league as rats etc which is vermin. That's a fact, not an opinion.

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Only usually by upper class twits that like to chase them all over the countryside on horseback, before having a starving pack of hounds rip them to shreds.
 
Find it strange that a fox can be classed as vermin by some for killing rabbits,when wild rabbits can officially be classed as vermin yet foxes aren't.Foxes are officially classed as 'unprotected species'. Anyway,I'd check how injured and either release it or ask for the gamekeeper to put it out of its' misery if injured. Wouldn't enter my head to call the RSPCA.

As much as some people hate foxes, their habitats were here long before humans built housing estates on them.Just trying to see both sides of the issue.
 
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