Posted on 02/05/2005 8:36:18 PM PST by T-Bird45
Urban foxes are attacking and killing pet cats because they are struggling to find enough food to eat in British towns and cities.
Cat owners have reported an increasing number of attacks and pest control specialists say that the use of wheelie bins, rather than bin bags, for rubbish disposal is partly to blame because it has deprived many foxes of an easy source of food.
There are no plans to start a cull of urban foxes
Gordon Manson, a pest controller from Balerno, near Edinburgh, says that the number of fox-related calls he receives has doubled. "The population has got out of hand and because of wheelie bins they are no longer able to find their regular supply of food," he said.
"Now they are moving on to pets. I have done jobs where I have turned up to find a cat's head in the garden. I've had about 40 to 60 calls from people bothered by foxes over the past year and usually it is more like 20 to 30."
Janet MacPhail, a 57-year-old nurse from Edinburgh, was recently woken in the night by screams coming from her garden. "We found a pack of six foxes attacking our cat, Clover. We managed to chase the foxes away, but she was badly mauled and had one eye missing, so we were forced to put her down.
"We feel that foxes are a pest and steps should be taken to keep them under control, but we spoke with the our local council who told us they had no policy on controlling urban foxes," she said.
Mike Hall, a veterinary surgeon at the Braid Veterinary Hospital where Clover was put down, said that he was dealing with a growing number of cats with fox-related injuries. "We have been seeing more examples of cats with fox bites recently, whereas 10 years ago it was unheard of," he said.
"I had one client who woke early one morning to find a fox chasing her cat around the dining room, having got in through the catflap. Foxes are becoming braver in what they will look for as prey."
Bob Drinkwater, a community centre manager from Stamford Hill, north London, recently saved Mica, his tabby cat, from a vicious fox attack. "Luckily I managed to frighten the fox off, but it had taken a large bite out of Mica's back legs, for which she needed stitches and anti-biotics. I had always heard that foxes don't attack cats, but clearly they do and need to be kept under control."
Kevin Stanley, a chef from Bexleyheath in Kent, who saw his cat being killed by two foxes, called for a cull. "Urban foxes should be exterminated and I would support any humane way of getting rid of them. It won't be long before a tragedy involving a child occurs because foxes are so daring now," he said.
The Countryside Alliance also called for stricter controls on the fox population. A spokesman said: "Now the fox is also an urban force, more must be done to ensure the population does not spiral out of control, because the impact on pets would be severe."
A spokesman for the Cats Protection League said its members were increasingly concerned about fox attacks on their pets. "While we still consider cars to be a greater threat, we are taking more calls from members who are worried about fox attacks," she said. "Our advice is to make sure cats are kept indoors at night."
Out of a total fox population of 240,000, approximately 35,000 animals are urban foxes. Although road accidents and disease are thought to kill off half of the adult animals every year, the urban population shows no sign of diminishing.
Stephen Harris, a professor of environmental science at Bristol University, said, however, that increasing fox attacks on domestic cats was an "urban myth".
"I have studied the behaviour of urban foxes for more than 35 years and have yet to see one attack a cat," he said. "Foxes are solitary by nature, so anybody claiming to have seen a pack of foxes attacking their cat is simply talking rubbish."
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said that it had no plans to start culling foxes in urban areas.
I had a pet fox when I was a child, and I can testify that they make the most delightful and intelligent pets in the world, combining all of the best features of a cat and a dog. They are brilliantly intelligent, funny, resourceful, amazing. However, you cannot really domesticate one who has grown to adulthood in the wild; you cannot housebreak them; you cannot trust them not to run away; and they are not legal as pets in most states so you can't get veterinary care for them.
In a fox, the incubation period is between 10 days and 15 months.
A pretty big spread, no question. My understanding is that it is pretty much the same no matter the gender....but am not exactly sure.
There are places that actually breed fox-so it would be the safest bet.
Too bad they can't hunt those foxes
Thanks for posting the information.
Funny pic, I will paste for my 11 year old daughter. Thanks!
Independent he may be, But Runt is a strangely sedate and friendly cat. He has this odd habit of rolling over onto his back if a member of the family merely acknowledges his existence. It is behavior that in a dog I would read as submissive. But I have never seen another cat do it--at least not as compulsively as Runt does it.
There are so many cats running wild here that all I can say is send them here!
I have had almost every pet known to man at some point in my life except a cat. I like them just fine, I've just never had one.
Tally ho! Bring back the fox hunts!
Hmmm, foxes, well I guess the "Three S's" apply, "Shoot, Shovel & Shut-up" would work. Then again firearms are largely banned in the UK so that might not work unless you "roll your own" or use some other method.
Seriously? Bring back fox hunting. Morons.
It's such a simple ( dare I say elegant? ) solution, you would think it would have occurred to someone...
it's too simple.
"There are no plans to start a cull of urban foxes"
Now there's a plan.
*ungh*
The fox are there probably not due to human poplation growth but due to fox population growth.
There's likely an overpopulation of them.
Oh, I do so love over-educated blithering idiots like this guy:
'' Stephen Harris, a professor of environmental science at Bristol University, said, however, that increasing fox attacks on domestic cats was an "urban myth". ''
He'd probably tell me here in NY that there are no coyote here, and that the mountain lion seen slinking around my area is a myth.
Bring on the foxes!
A friend has a leg injury that keeps him awake a lot. To pass the time he watches the activity of foxes feeding under his bird feeders in a apple tree in his front yard late at night. Thursday night he had four Foxes eating. He lives about a mile east of Eureka in a lightly developed area. I have seen one or two around our home here in town. Last summer a Mountain Lion was seen about 300 yards across the gulch from us so we no longer have as many stray cats killing Quail and song birds here in this area.
Heck, here in Michigan we have coyote problems.
The place i just moved out of was sheep country, and the coyotes were so bold...
they'd come right up to the house...
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