The inspiration for this post came on a rainy day walking home from a walk. I have always been a person who would stop at lampposts and read the lost cat signs on them, not that I had found a cat but because it interests me how many people lose cats every day. So on this particular day I saw a piece of paper with black printed writing on it and as I went closer I realised that it wasn't a missing cat poster it was much worse. The poster was a warning saying someone had been poisoning local foxes. I had noticed that there had been a lot of foxes around and that they had been in my garden more but I could not believe that someone would actually do this.
I know people feel foxes are pests with a potential to endanger household pets and chickens, and some people worry that foxes carry rabies, but you are much more likely to be bitten by a dog, who are named mans best friend, than by foxes and the chance that the fox strain of rabies might be transmitted to a human is very small. Meanwhile the post-exposure treatment is 100% effective if promptly administered so it is treatable in this country.
The reason many people find foxes a threat is because of the way the news reports them because no one is interested in a fox and a woman avoiding each other but if the fox bites the woman it makes the front pages because it is so rare. Foxes generally only bite when distress, anxious or are trapped so if you see a fox just avoid it and don't try to block its escape path.
If you are found guilty of killing a fox you can be sent to prison for up to 6 months and be made to pay a fine of £5,000 per fox.
The dangers of poisoning a fox are great for example you could accidentally poison a cat or a dog or even a human. This will also mean the overall all fox population will drop however one of the many problems with the killing of foxes is that it is not effective because if a fox responsible for a territory dies more new foxes will come and fight to try and take it over so as a result the foxes in your area will grow.
The NHS said that around 250,000 people come to hospital's minor injuries departments with dog bites a year while the amount of foxes bites are incredibly small. While according to Petpedia an online pet advice blog over 4.7 million people are bitten by dogs every year.
There are many harmless ways to make foxes leave your garden - these include sprays with certain scents, motion activated sprinklers and much more - so don't harm an innocent animal just because it used your garden as a toilet and yes, it is unpleasant but afterwards plants might grow better when animal waste is used as fertiliser. As well as this, if an unnatural amount of foxes are killed, it will affect the eco- system and food chains.
Hope you enjoyed the blog and gained a different view on foxes.
We'll post again soon,
The eco sisters xxx