[Frieslandfilly]

Since Christmas we have trapped and shot 4 foxes, all Dog Foxes, the last one was on Tues last week, then on Wed morning about 10.30, I heard a rumpus outside the back door, opened it to find another fox with my chicken in its mouth 
This morning I was up the back when I spotted one going across my back paddock, I crept round to the menage and watched it for 20 mins while it sat in the hedgeline watching my chickens, luckily I was up wind and hidden from view, when it finally moved into the paddock I tried to creep round and see where it was going but it disappeared, must have heard me  . Today's fox is a different one to the one last week and is also a dog as I saw it cock its leg, where the heck are they all coming from 

We have two traps that are quite successful but word must be spreading as it is taking longer to catch them, they have been set for three days now as we heard these lot calling to each other a few nights ago, I am now going to resort to smearing cat food on the carcusses.

I know we have had a harsh couple of weeks weather wise but all these dog foxes in one area seems a bit odd!

[Fowgill Farm]

Never had a problem before all tree & bunny huggers banned proper hunting! 
I know foxes are a terror but i do love to see them, i saw near woodland a vixen & her cubs playing in the long grass, it was a privilefge to see. However like all wild things they do need to be kept in check and the local hunts did just that.
Mandy 

[jaykay]

You know that town folk sometimes catch foxes that are causing a nuisance in bins and so on, and release them 'in the wild'! Might be worth finding out if some dozy wildlife group has been operating in your area.

[Frieslandfilly]

Never had a problem before all tree & bunny huggers banned proper hunting! 
I know foxes are a terror but i do love to see them, i saw near woodland a vixen & her cubs playing in the long grass, it was a privilefge to see.
Mandy 

I agree they are beautiful creatures, I also agree with the hunting problem, I personally dont have anything agasint hunting but when they banned it they should have put in place a cull of some sort.

You know that town folk sometimes catch foxes that are causing a nuisance in bins and so on, and release them 'in the wild'! Might be worth finding out if some dozy wildlife group has been operating in your area.

I have heard this before, though never seen evidence of it, I did ask as we have the Blue Cross Headquarters up the the road about 5 miles, but they apparently dont take in wildlife, I do happen to think that these must be urban foxes however, as I was watching it make terrible attempts to catch rabbits and pigeons also to have so many dogs in close proximity I find odd, or perhaps there are just so many now that they have to live near each other.

[Lesley Silvester]

I hadn't really registered but I have seen more urban foxes this year so far than I did in the whole of last year.

[tizaala]

I think I've posted this story before but  :

Last year I was in our horse paddock when I saw a blue transit coming up our track, I saw him turn round and open the back doors and release about twenty foxes, as I was 2 fields away at the time there wasn't a lot I could do. That week we lost 3 geese and twenty four chickens, most of them were trapped and dispatched in a few days . The police thought it was an urban rescue group from Hereford or Shrewsbury,
Why can't they catch the foxes in the towns and put them down if they are a nuisance instead of placing them in an enviroment that they can't cope with.

[Bright Raven]

Fox strike this morning, lost five out of my six ducks. 

[Derby_menagerie]

I heard of someone who shot a 3 legged fox that had clearly had surgery! what are people thinking what chance does a 3 legged fox have
when released, into another fox terrotory! Slow painful starve to death and there are being humane! I like seeing foxes, but just not to near
my chicken coop. To the OP I would be on the look out for vans in laybys as it does sound unusual to be getting so many! People need to
understand that saving 1 fox is not conservation, ensuring there are wild parts in the countryside with a good biodiversity is, thats what
people should put there time and money into! 

[FiB]

Commiserations Bright raven.  One of my neighbours shoots foxes in our area and says there have been a lot of urban foxes released in our valley in the last couple of weeks - says he knows they are not wild because they are so fat.

[Dizzycow]

Very interesting thread. Our keeper shoots more foxes than can possibly be feasibly living here. I emailed the local SPCA and they assured me we're not a release site. Someone HAS to be releasing them, though. Recently he shot 14 in one fortnight, there were a lot of adult males. We live close to a pheasant pen, which is why the foxes have to be shot, and why I contacted the SPCA, so that if it was them they would choose a rather more fox-friendly location, if there is such a thing.

[feldar]

It's the lady down the road from me ! she feeds them cooked chicken from Tescos and i bet she loads them up and releases them around the country. Bloody woman is completely barking mad!

[Penninehillbilly]

These 'fox release sites' are a puzzling thing, do the idiots who release them think they just stay in one place, don't they even know enough to understand the fox needs it's own territory.
HOW can we start a campaign to make releasing urban foxes illegal (which unfortunately it isn't), it's cruel to the fox and the fox has no option but to take easy 'prey' - our pets.
I lost hens and ducks to a fox one sunday morning, about 10am, called gamekeeper and he shot 2 a couple of nights later. said he could tell by looking they urban foxes, didn't know how to hunt.
I used to be a great believer in Tiggiwinkles wildlife hospital, gone off them now I know they release foxes.

[Lesley Silvester]

Bright Raven,so sorry to hear about your ducks.

On the Isle of Arran where I once lived, there were no foxes but there were mink, all descended from some who had been released from a mink farm by animal rights people.  Now I don't approve of mink farms but they should have tried comforting my little boy when he went to feed the ducks one morning and found a scene of mass slaughter.

[Small Farmer]

We've had the smallest number of rabbits around here for years and years so i guess that domestic fowl move right up the menu. 

[MAK]

I echo all above - nice animals but not when they take my ducks.
It is all a bit uncomplicated  here in France - hunting is an important part of life and I get my share of kill given to me by the local hunt.
 They killed a Fox 2 days after one took my ducks . The Fox is a creature of habit after a kill and my elderly neighbour saw it at noon, told her nephew and it was shot at noon the next day.  I guess what I am saying is that rural life rules here with no towns people thinking that they are guardians of animal wellfare.

I sympathise with everyones losses - such a waste after all the hardwork of rearing and caring for our birds.