Rescued Fox Cub
Posted by Abigail on 14/05/08, filed under Wildlife |
This adorable fox cub (pictured right with our Nursing Assistant, Karin Salcher) was brought in to Grove Lodge by WADARS one night recently after being found in High Street, Tarring. After a thorough health check, she was sent to recuperate in the capable hands of Rogers Wildlife Rescue in Woodingdean. As you may have seen in last week’s Worthing Herald, members of the public are deliberately poisoning foxes, seeing them only as vermin and a nuisance and perhaps that is what happened to this little one’s mother.
Members of the public absolutely must not deliberately harm foxes – it is cruel and illegal and carries a penalty of up to 6 months in prison or a fine of £5,000 per animal harmed. It is worth remembering that DEFRA have never categorised the fox as vermin.
To avoid your bin bags being investigated by foxes, keep them in a secure bin and not loose in the street. If that is impossible, try to put bags out for the bin men in the morning, rather than leave them out overnight when foxes are at their most active.
Chickens and rabbits must be locked up carefully overnight as a fox does not understand they are your beloved pet and sees them as a tasty dinner.
Why not try learning more about our urban foxes - take a look at the website of The Fox Project, based here in the South East, at www.foxproject.org.uk. They are a charity dedicated to helping foxes and their website gives fascinating facts to help you understand and enjoy foxes and excellent advice on deterring foxes from your garden should you wish to do so.
Contact WADARS on 01903 217788 if you find an injured or sick fox and they will collect it for you.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 at 12:47 pm and is filed under Wildlife. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Excellent post. I was unaware of the penalties that can result from illegally culling foxes. You are providing some really useful advice here - well done.
We live in Woodingdean and we’re lucky enough to have a family of urban foxes living in the area. They’re great fun.
Our neighbour told us that the foxes regularly steal her left gardening shoe - never the right one - if she leaves them outside. And she’s right. I left a pair of pink flip flops out a while back and the next morning the left one was gone. I’ve also lost a left trainer since!
They also break into our neighbour’s greenhouse fairly regularly. Last time they ate all her basil but left everything else!
As fas as we’re concerned they have as much right to be here as we do. The foxes ignore our cats, who ignore them in turn. They did eat next doors’ rabbits, mind you, but that’s their job. It’s what foxes do. Live and live!
I was shocked to hear that people are deliberately poisoning foxes when the only “harm” they do is to rummage through dustbins. Seagulls and cats also take advantage of carelessly stored refuse, sometimes to the detriment of the health of the cat when it gets chicken bones stuck in its throat! What are we doing putting food waste in dustbins anyway, just to fill up landfill sites. All of us, with gardens, should perhaps be taking some responsibilty for our waste by composting. It is now possible to compost all food waste, cooked or uncooked in “Food Waste Digesters” available at reduced prices from West Sussex County Council. Then, not only can we discourage foxes, we can also protect our cats from the dangers of midnight snacking!
I think it is despicable that some people resort to deliberating poisoning foxes. Foxes are part of our wildlife but have had a lot of their natural habitat destroyed and replaced with new developments and have no choice but to leave alongside us in urban areas. There is also a misconception that foxes harm cats. In fact many cats will chase off a fox, but I saw my cat late one night sitting next to a fox. They were happily sitting side by side, it looked as though she had made a friend. The One Show this evening pointed out that foxes did not harm cats and showed footage of a cat chasing a fox out of its garden.