Time to call halt on 'urban' foxes debate
I AM still waiting for clear proof from Mr Rix (Journal Letters, July 8) that hundreds of urban foxes are being dumped in the countryside.
Are we honestly to believe pest controllers in London go to the expense of transporting caged foxes hundreds of miles to dump them when they could simply be humanly destroyed on the spot.
I most certainly did not mock or lightly dismiss the recent attack on the twin girls, I was simply putting the whole issue into perspective.
Only last week a child was attacked and badly injured by a Border collie, do we therefore exterminate every Border collie in the land?
Every year hundreds of sheep, geese, ducks and chickens are killed by domestic dogs, do we therefore wipe out the dog population?
As for fox hunting, to say the hunting ban has caused the fox to breed out of control is quite honestly an insult to readers' intelligence.
Again I will say to Mr Rix, nearly every hunt in the land provides artificial earths which are tended by keepers and hunt employees simply to encourage foxes to breed in order to provide plenty of foxes for the hunting season. If one of these foxes reared on a hunting estate made off with one of Mr Rix's chickens I suppose it would be quite acceptable.
As Mr Rix and myself will never agree on this issue trading blows seems pretty futile. Perhaps we should let the Journal readers make up their own minds.
M Michalak
Swaffham Road
Burwell
It seems that Mr Rix (Journal Letters, July 8) would have us believe there are now so many foxes in the area that we should be falling over them every time we step out of our front doors. I am afraid that I must also be guilty of walking around with my head in the sand, as I have seen no evidence of this.
I am in agreement with Mr Michalak's rather more rational view expressed in his letter to the previous week's Journal that foxes have an important role as natural predator to rodents and rabbits. Of course they do not kill every rodent and rabbit – what predator other than man would hunt its prey to extinction? However, they would be far more in abundance without foxes to keep them in check.
Foxes are a natural part of our countryside and, like people in other countries whom we urge to protect and live alongside lions, tigers, wolves and other more ferocious predators, we should learn to live alongside our own wild animals. After all, the United Nations has declared 2010 to be the International Year of Biodiversity and we should be looking at ways of protecting our indigenous wildlife and not simply labelling it "vermin". It is not only our predatory mammals that suffer because of this labelling; birds of prey such as hen harriers, golden eagles and buzzards continue to be persecuted.
Of course it is very sad what happened to the children reported to be the victims of a fox attack. This was an unfortunate but isolated incident and should not be used by people such as Mr Rix as a media opportunity to whip the country into an anti-fox frenzy in the hope of influencing a repeal on the ban on hunting with hounds. According to the press, many children have been victims of attacks by domestic dogs, but I do not see Mr Rix calling for a ban on keeping dogs. Indeed not, for this would surely include hunting hounds.
I am sure the majority of rational people remain of the opinion that hunting animals with hounds in the name of sport is a cruel and outdated pastime which should remain confined to the history books.
Susan Patterson
Newmarket*
SO according to Mr Rix (Journal Letters, July 8) foxes no longer hunt for rats or rabbits.
I have kept ducks and chickens for many years and thanks to good husbandry have not lost one single bird to foxes. In fact, the foxes in the fields at the bottom of my garden do a splendid job of keeping down the rabbits which are eating their way through everything.
April Brown
Kirtling Road
Stetchworth
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Friday 25 May 2012
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