Fox Problem?
 

Does anyone have a fox problem? I live in London and there have always been a few foxes around. But last year there seemed to be more in the autumn and winter. There seemed to be 1 adult and 2 full grown cubs in the gardens every night and making a lot of loud yapping and barking noises, often going on for long periods of time.

Now when I lived in Accrington I never saw foxes in the town but did see them at dusk in the fields long way from the town.

What is the situation today? Are there many in Accrington town centre and/or in residential areas? Are any problems caused by foxes?

Re: Fox Problem?
 

fox shows too many repeats of the simpsons :)


as for real fox's i have one that visits my front garden very morning around 5am infact i think it also nips into the back garden for a sniff around my ferret.

the way i see it is if you live near teh edge of town you shouldnt really call seeing a fox a problem or if you live up in teh hills but if your talking manchester town center then yes i would say there was a fox problem

Re: Fox Problem?
 

You are lucky ... last year we had wolves, coyote's, and fishers ... and the skunk ... always the skunk.:mad:

Re: Fox Problem?
 

And raccoons:eek:

Re: Fox Problem?
 

I live in Accy on Sandy Lane and sometimes I have seen a fox by the roundabout by St.Annes School.

Re: Fox Problem?
 

apart from the ones on nature shows, I have only seen three live foxes in my lifetime....this despite growing up in a pretty rural area.

I was on the bus one early morning going to work a BRI and I saw a fox crossing a field in Ossy, just past where the old Daisy Dairy was......this would be in the early 1970's.
More recently I was in Eastbourne on a turkey and tinsel break about 7 years ago and it was very warm inside the hotel.......I went outside and sat on a bench to get some fresh air.......two adult foxes strolled across the road and onto the car park......It was 10pm at night. They didn't seem at all bothered by my presence....and walked past me...no more that 6 feet away from where I sat.

Re: Fox Problem?
 

:rolleyes:Well I was into wild life in the 70's, so I was always out and about and only ever saw foxes very rarely at dusk up near Spires Farm - never on the coppice or other nearer places but occassionally could see their waste, different from dogs.

Where I am now back in 2007 one morning I opened my door and there was a big old really raggy/scabby fox standing at the door and it wouldn't move, I had to drive it away and then it went and sat in the garden in broad daylight - that was a once only occurence.

Re: Fox Problem?
 

The guy who own's Higher Brox farm has had foxes after his lambs.

Re: Fox Problem?
 

Ya Max, foxes might look nice a sweet little things, but the truth is they're evil swines really, I've seen the damage they do in a hen hut, they don't just kill one for food they kill the lot of pleasure, I only saw it once that was enough:eek:

Re: Fox Problem?
 

I take it that you haven't bumped into too many wolves, coyotes, skunk, and raccoons then;)

Re: Fox Problem?
 

Seen that with hens the foxes just kill and leave them .They don't even eat them.

Re: Fox Problem?
 

Ya its just sickening, like a blood bath, you have to see it to believe it

Re: Fox Problem?
 

http://www.coyotewatchcanada.com/wp-...07_J.B_030.jpg

Fox on steroids.:D

I take it that when we are talking fox hunting, we are referring to upper class tory twits riding around in silly outfits, drinking out of antique flasks, while the dogs and the peasantry do all the work.

Re: Fox Problem?
 

I'm assuming that you have never smelled a skunk. When I first came to Canada, I had never smelled one, but the first time I got down wind of a skunk roadkill, I didn't have to be told what it was;) Skunk are cute, timid, slow, poorly armed in the tooth and claw department, etc. ... so the good lord, in her infinite wisdom, came up with a brilliant defensive armament.:mosher: Come to think of it, if the upper class twits want to chase down small wild critters, they should come over here to the colonies, and chase down and corner a bunch of skunk.:alright:

Re: Fox Problem?
 

That bad hey Eric, just what is a comparable smell in the UK:D

Re: Fox Problem?
 

I have to say that, other than being downwind of Westminster in question period,:rolleyes: there is absolutely nothing in the UK to compare it to. Even then, the smell of bs from 600 plus parliamentarians still doesn't outpong one baby skunk.:D

Re: Fox Problem?
 

I think it might be my greying hair and the wrinkles that put them all off now Eric...Oh sorry, are we talking about 4 legged critters here?:D

Re: Fox Problem?
 

Don't know about foxes but there seems to have been an explosion of the badger population in the North of England. I saw about 5 dead on the side of roads recently while in the Lakes and down the Ribble valley too.

Re: Fox Problem?
 

Surely, if they are dead that's a cull of badgers not an explosion?
:confused:

Re: Fox Problem?
 

Have rarely seen one (dead or alive) before -to have seen so many must mean there are more around -either that or they have suddenly all become suicidal!

Actually now I think about it, it may just reflect the fact that there are more cars on the roads these days= more accidents with badgers:rolleyes: possibly!

I had a day last week with a group of retired farmers who were on their hols on Lake Garda and came to visit farms with me for a day (yes, they do enjoy it before you ask!). They were from many different areas of the UK and they all asked if badgers were a big problem here as in the UK -seems they blame them for carrying TB.

Re: Fox Problem?
 

Perhaps they don't kill them for pleasure! It's possible they kill them all out of panic or confusion. Fact is having a lot of birds trapped in a hen hut is not nature - so a fox getting into a hen hut may react that way because of it's abnormal and un-natural situation. :D

Re: Fox Problem?
 

I think you are right on this one ... foxes are not "evil" killers, they are, well, foxes. It's the nature of the beast. When my JRT chases a squirrel, and I put the brake on the leash, she gives me that questioning look, as if she is saying: "Hey, I'm a terrier; and this is what terriers do.";)

Re: Fox Problem?
 

Don't want to sound pedantic but fox hunting is not illegal.. hunting any wildlife using more than one dog is illegal.

Re: Fox Problem?
 

I've seen more foxes in London than I ever saw around Accy.. used to go out for rabbits on weekends outside Accy and only ever saw one fox.. must have seen half a dozen in central London, I've had them walk past me on the Old Kent Road early morning and not even look up, most of them look like skinny stray dogs.

Re: Fox Problem?
 

Great photograph. Yes I meant fox hunting with dogs which is illegal - I tried to change the poll description but it wouldn't let me do it. :D

Re: Fox Problem?
 

And your original question "are foxes a problem" I think they have always been a problem for game keepers.. the old chestnut about them breaking into hen houses or poultry farms and killing loads of chickens for the fun of it is rubbish.. foxes are dogs.. they maybe clever but they don't carry bolt cutters or crowbars and can't break into any self respecting owner of hen coups.:D

Re: Fox Problem?
 

Fox hunting with dogs is illegal! They should shoot them in winter - easy, just put down some fresh meat near a shooting hide and then shoot them. That's if any population control is needed by game keepers etc. As for farm lifestock - sheep are too big for a fox to kill, maybe they take the odd lamb but most sheep/lambs are killed by rogue dogs.

Tally ho fox hunting is a barbaric way to kill foxes (like Badger baiting) and should never be made legal again.

Yeh foxes are every where in London and walking through any street in the early hours, there will usually be a fox seen looking for food. :D So I don't know why they aren't seen more often in the centre of smaller towns like Accrington?

Re: Fox Problem?
 

It's all down to your Alcohol levels I reckon, but in the morning when the Beer goggles are whipped away by the Evil hangover Pixies, said Fox turns out to be a proper Dog. :D



Sorry, couldn't let the chance go, I'll apologise & crawl off back under my rock shall I ? :rolleyes:

Re: Fox Problem?
 

What is the situation today? Are there many in Accrington town centre and/or in residential areas? Are any problems caused by foxes?[/quote]
No the smell from the piles of dog sh1te on the pavements, & grassy areas warns them off.

Re: Fox Problem?
 

Fox No Problem:

File:22-250 Remington.JPG - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Re: Fox Problem?
 

It's a rare treat to see a fox up here.

Different matter when I lived in London.

My garden was like a vulpine Killing Fields.

Every single day there'd be blooded feathery, or furry evidence of something they'd massacred.

There was one really cheeky grey old fox, who used to sit on the sitting room window sill.

You could bang, shout, but he'd still carry on sneering at you, through the glass.

I don't dislike them, and am glad they are no longer hunted.

There are more humane ways, if they need to be controlled.

http://www.messentools.com/images/em...gmareado-1.gif

Re: Fox Problem?
 

Urban foxes, in London especially, are endemic.

If I was working late I'd see them emptying the bins, in the middle of Hyde Park Corner.

The cheeky foxers.

That's taking humans' jobs away from them.

Re: Fox Problem?
 

The Tories did include a free vote on fox hunting in their manifesto.. seems this was blunted by Clegg just after the last election and the Tories concluded that there was no real support for a repeal of the hunting with dogs law but it is still on the books.
I my opinion hunting with dogs should be allowed, but not as a sport.. there is a big difference between hunting for sport and hunting for something you eat.

Re: Fox Problem?
 

how can humans complain about any other species ,as we have killed maimed more species than any other species.its like saying deer damage the enviroment when we completely destroy every other species habitat every day:rolleyes:

Re: Fox Problem?
 

Spotted this pair in Verona last year...:D

Re: Fox Problem?
 

The foxes near me (in London) don't seem to catch things at all - except dead meat out of the dustbins and the scraps I throw down for them - as is the case with most London foxes they all eat human left overs.

Re: Fox Problem?
 

Hope you don't mean human remains by that:eek::D

Re: Fox Problem?
 

No I mean they get into the bins and root out waste meat products - the one left near me, eats bread sometimes as well. :rolleyes: In the mornings there are bags spread over the gardens this is the foxes work.

Re: Fox Problem?
 

When it comes to this sort of thing, foxes can't hold a candle to coons:

Nerves Frayed In Toronto Over Roaming Raccoons : NPR

Re: Fox Problem?
 

Mmm and they can't hold a tin opener to Black Bears - which are a problem in many small towns over there!

Re: Fox Problem?
 

Black bears are a pest ... these are critters to avoid at all costs:

File:Grizzlybear55.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Re: Fox Problem?
 

Have you seen this - :D

Man Plays With Grizzly Bear - YouTube

Re: Fox Problem?
 

I like it ... http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Jo7lJoQhtj...y%2Blarson.jpg but this is more like the reality.;) I was within about 50m of a grizzly once ... just north of Ile-a-la-Crosse, Sask ... fortunately the wind was in the right direction; and after a while, he lumbered away. I was armed, of course, ... you don't go into the bush without a weopon ... but fortunately I didn't have to shoot.

Re: Fox Problem?
 

There was a program about a bloke who hikes in the wilderness unarmed in America where bears are. :rolleyes: But take this guy - he went to the zoo and jumped into the Bear pen...:eek:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=a9cIqK01Fwk

Re: Fox Problem?
 

Good one.:D It's not that I'm insensitive to the guy's predicament, but ... jumping into a bear pit without a formal introduction and other social niceties is, well, mmm ... words (ones that I can use on here) fail me.;) And hiking in the wilderness unarmed:rolleyes: I don't be thinking so.

Re: Fox Problem?
 

Three legged fox spotted outside St Annes School in Sandy Lane Accy last night

Re: Fox Problem?
 

Bet it weren't long before it hopped it Max,:D okay I'll get mi coat:rolleyes:

Re: Fox Problem?
 

Have you ever been on the stage?

Re: Fox Problem?
 

He was Max & they told him to hurry up with the sweeping as the next act was due on. :)

Re: Fox Problem?
 

Nice one!

Re: Fox Problem?
 

Take no notice of the scouse git, I spent many a happy hour on the stage with not a brush in sight:D