I tuned into this quite late on last night and was shocked to see a fella shooting two foxes dead in his city garden. Can anyone tell me what I missed in the build up to this? Was there a reason he needed to get rid of the pair? I can get my head around a farmer shooting a fox as a "pest", but not someone in the city getting rid of what little wildlife there is! Anyone?

The camera crew followed a family of foxes in the suburbs. The guy who got the foxes shot was keeping chickens in his back garden "to bring a bit of the countryside to the city"!!!!!

Anyway, as foxes do, they went after the hens. The two foxes were a courting couple (the female was pregnant). She was soon to give birth and went hunting for food. That's when the pest controller shot them.

You knew it was going to happen but what really pissed me off was the utter glee which came over the householder when the foxes were shot "oh great shot who o". He was a complete prat. If you want hens, move the country and keep them, not in a back garden in the city where they cause a noise nuisance. It was cruel in the extreme and unnecessary.

However, it didn't get rid of the fox "problem" as other foxes came back.

The householder is a clown. As they say, what goes around .....

i'm still seething about this programme even the day after!

surely there must be some kind of gun law for use inner city...i cant honestly believe that you would be allowed to shoot out of your back window????
I'm sure i have seen youngsters on tv being pursued by the police for pointing an air gun out of a window!

i hope somebody dobs that ******* idiot into the cops, because his actions were unnecessarily cruel, and i would like to see him pursued and penalised for his actions.

In fact, somebody on this forum has mentioned about all the animal extremists....i would have thought that by showing the glorification of his killing of the foxes...he better hope nobody knows where he lives, otherwise it wont just be the foxes getting shot!

what a prat! he should consider himself fortunate to have wildlife in his inner city garden....surely if his chickens are so precious, he would have some sympathy for the rest of the natural world.

ok, rant over.

on the positive side, it was nice to see the old guys caring for the foxes, especially as they were obviously not very well off. good on you boys

its nice to know some people still respect and treasure the local wildlife instead of treating it like something they stepped in...

in fact what made me feel particularly sick to the stomach was hearing the male fox calling for his mate, after the despicable shooting

i thought i was totally de-sensitized to tv but felt unable to watch after the male fox wandered into the garden looking for her...absolutely awful

I'm absolutely seething now. I was hoping they were diseased or something? The guy could have made his chickens more secure, surely? I wonder what his neighbours think about him. What a complete numpty he is. The pest controller who shot them looked like he was loving acting like rambo. Big hunter, hiding on someone's loo, shooting a pregnant vixen and her mate for no good reason at all. I'm so annoyed. God forbid we actually live side by side with nature at all.

I hope his garden is filled with a million foxes, the pleb.

Well basically he kept chickens, and the fox broke in and killed them. Upsetting for him, indeed, but to me, a poor reason for then slaughtering a pregnant vixen and her mate. You can't attempt to live the "natural" life by keeping chickens and then complain when a fox also acts naturally too. The arrogance of humans is astounding...

spot on....what an hypocrite that stupid bloke was! its nature for gods sake

hope his neighbours dob him in to the authorities for using a gun in a public area!

prat

You are all saying just what I was thinking! Surely there are laws about guns in such a built up area. If I were his neighbour, I'd go mad. I had to have a wee chuckle when his neighbour said the foxes were doing a good job killing the hens and keeping the noise down! The chicken coop looked filthy, more a health hazard than any fox.

This guy was a complete fool. I hope he gets what's coming to him. He and his family were ignorant in the extreme.

Do you uses mouse traps? I do, and don't feel bad about saying so. Foxes maybe be cuter, but they are still a pest that comes out to play when we don't get rid of our waste and excess food properly. Ideally we should be sorting out the factors that are causing the rise in urban foxes, i.e. not encouraging them into the city with the promise of an easy life and chocolate gateaux at christmas time! However, humans are selfish and tend to care about their own back yard a lot more than their whole city. Shooting them may seem harsh, but as extermination methods go its pretty painless. Much better than a hound hunting them down and tearing them apart, i think most of you will agree. Not an ideal solution, but it is a problem that needs to be dealt with rather than hugged and ignored.

A problem for who, exactly?

No, I don't use mouse traps. As long as the rodents stay out in the garden, they do no harm. Before you mention diseases, people should be washing their hands before they eat if they've been rummaging in the garden anyway! Most animals will stay out of the way of humans naturally. If they're causing problems rummaging through your bin, then you secure the bin so that they can't. It's not rocket science.

We've built so much housing in the last few years, taking over a lot of the green land where animals lived quite happily before we came along. We have to expect a bit of the wildlife living around us. Or should we just exterminate everything that we don't like the look of?

How would these people survive in some of the towns in Australia, where poisonous snakes and spiders are commonplace?

His neighbours must be livid. I'd have to have words with him.

To be fair, this was a drama-doc, as I understand it, although reflective of real life.
I did not see the programme of which you speak, but have got a flavour of it from reading your posts. Same story, world over. All creatures (even those we don't like) have a right to live. Human beings will not tolerate the existence of any creature which does not make money for humans, is food for humans or is a pet for humans. It would appear that the fox you speak of is at least as worthy of life as the prick who wants to keep fancy chickens to show off to his friends.

Truly, humans have become an infestation on the earth - inimical to all other life!

Its a few days after the Cutting Edge Meet The Foxes 'show' and I still can't get it out of my head. I was quite literally heartbroken to see the pregnant vixen murdered and then her distressed partner crying and searching for her, then finding her dead and being gunned down too by her side. It was horrific.

I just wept for them, for their starving babies and for the awful world we live in. Most animal documentaries tend to turn the camera away if scenes are too distressing and thats in the natural world - there was nothing natural about a pompous city dweller with a garden full of chickens deliberately luring a pregnant wild animal into his garden for the sole purpose of executing it. It was utterly barbaric.

I only hope the evil man was not paid by Channel 4 for his participation in this documentary and hope that the RSPCA are hunting him down. Also there are no words to describe the 'pest controllers' that trapped and shot the innocent animals, I hope the authorities are investigating them too.

I am grateful for the information provided by the NFWS on the other Meet The Foxes Forum under Channel 4 Culture (which seems to have disappeared??? hence why Im writing here instead.) Also it was so good to see some kind people who cared for the foxes in the programme, there are still a few good souls around.

Peace & coexistence

quote:

Originally posted by madmaz:
I am grateful for the information provided by the NFWS on the other Meet The Foxes Forum under Channel 4 Culture (which seems to have disappeared??? hence why Im writing here instead.) Also it was so good to see some kind people who cared for the foxes in the programme, there are still a few good souls around.

I never got to see the other thread or information. Maybe someone could post it here? I'm still livid over this myself. I'm surprised there hasn't been more said about it to be honest.

After watching Meet the Foxes last week I was shocked and sickened by the action of that sick man. It reduced me to tears.

If that idiot had secured the chicken pen properly in the first place then it would not have occurred. Instead the revengeful b*****d lured the defensless fox into his garden and shot it, along with its mate. I see these people pests but I can't go around shooting them. Anyway doesn't his action come under fox hunting! More should be done to stop these sick people.

As you can probably tell I feel stongly about this being an animal lover and this has really rattled my cage

Hi all

Yes, the thread set up by the wonderful National Fox Welfare Society has been removed by Channel Four. This was the response I presume they dislike:


Meet The Foxes



With regards to the Channel Four documentary 'Meet The Foxes' NFWS (
National Fox Welfare Society) were asked to be featured by its producer. We
were informed this was just a simple documentary highlighting the plight of
the urban fox showing people that love them and people that hate them and
people that care for them, we were not advised the show's bias would be
anti-fox feeling, neither were we advised that the filming they done would
be mocked up for the storyline they tried weakly to portray.



Firstly, the fox shown in one of our rescuers arms , is in fact a resident
fox that can not be released back to the wild due to slight brain damage,
wild foxes that are caught needing our care and attention are brought in to
our facilities in Northamptonshire where they are treated and returned back,
they are not taken to Essex. The fox in the film being rescued was actually
put to sleep at the vets within an hour of being caught due to internal
injuries most likely caused by an RTA ( Road Traffic Accident). The fox
shown to be released was one that was in our care in Northamptonshire and
that came in suffering from a bad case of Sarcoptic Mange.



The shows main focus was around the man that kept chickens and again the
producers tried to portray the fox as an animal that kills simply for fun,
something the pro hunt lobby have been trying to do for years. Foxes will
only kill chickens if they can and it's the duty of the chicken keeper to
ensure their chickens are safe. Foxes don't carry keys or wire cutters, if
they can't get in, they can't cause any problems. To have your first lot of
chickens wiped out is ignorance, to have your next lot wiped out is cruelty,
cruelty that is from the two legged problem, not the four! A fox, given the
opportunity will kill more than it will eat in one sitting, this is not
killing for pleasure, it's common sense. Kill when it's available and cache
the surplus, no different to us going shopping, rarely do we shop for the
day, we shop for the week and store the rest!



Facts



Fox repellents are available to stop foxes fouling on your lawn, putting
lion dung around weak fencing in the hope that this will deter the fox from
killing chickens is laughable if not so serious, the only animal this would
possible repel would be another lion, not many of them in urban London!



Catching urban foxes and releasing them in another area i.e. woodland,
farmland etc is technically illegal and would fall under the Abandonment Of
A Captive Animal. The fox would not survive as it is a territorial animal
and would be seen off and possibly killed by the territory holding foxes in
that area. Furthermore, relocating foxes can also cause more problems than
it claims to help; relocating foxes can also relocate Sarcoptic Mange to an
otherwise mange free area.



Urban foxes do not live off the contents of peoples bins, if they did, in
areas where the wheelie bin is common place, one would expect to see a
decline in fox numbers, this hasn't been the case. Many see the urban fox as
an asset as they kill rats and mice. Foxes also collect people's discarded
items that could attract both the latter.



Foxes don't have any natural predators, this is true, but neither do badgers
and we don't see masses of them. Lions don't have any natural predators so
why haven't they eaten their selves out of house and home?



Apart from the obvious cruelty of shooting foxes and cubs starving to death
without their vixen mother, so called pest control companies make a good
living out of this killing spree, failing to inform householders that this
night time shooting wont solve any long term problems as all it does in the
short term is create a vacant territory for another fox to kill. The program
finished with the chicken keeper actually saying more foxes were back, his
money would have been far kinder and more beneficially spent on proper
secure fencing and housing



Sarcoptic Mange can be treated we have been successfully treating mange for
fifteen years. If they are just going down with mange we send treatment out
free of charge that is added to a little food each night that will see the
fox return to health. If the fox is suffering from a bad case of mange we
set a cage trap, catch the fox and then treat it, once treated the fox is
returned back into the garden from where it was caught.



What can be done: Please write and complain to Channel Four for its biased
misleading approach to urban foxes follow the links from their web site
http://www.channel4.com/documentaries/index.html?hpos=Documentaries



Please write to your local and National papers letters page, give the fox a
positive voice

Kind Regards

Martin, National Fox Welfare Society

Cheers you. Very informative. Thanks for the help. If this now gets deleted I'll be livid at C4 for not letting us discuss all aspects of this film!

Well I won't delete it. I have edited it because we don't generally allow URLs or adverts, but the text is there.

I think NFWS are being unneccessarily negative about this. I watched it and thought it was a great pro-fox documentary and showed the ridiculousness of those who demonise them. And the NFWS were portrayed in a really good light too. I don't agree that there is much to complain about in this documentary, to be honest, and I'm saying that from the perspective of someone very pro-fox.

I was just thinking about this. I'm not sure what I'd complain about to C4 if I did! If the purpose of the film was to show how stupid people are who get demented over a fox in the garden, then it was a success. Maybe they can do the same with the pro-fox hunting people in the countryside now.

My reservation is that the resident and the "pest controller" were hamming it up for the cameras, and that the foxes might have been left alone had it not been for the film crew there, waiting for something to happen so that they could get that shot.

I have to say that most C4 documentaries are brilliant in content and style, and always provoke thought and debate, which can only be a good thing.

Is there any way of finding out if there has been a local reaction to the film, amongst the neighbours there? I'd be interested in a follow up of some sort!

well I do live in Stoke Newington so I'll do some detective work...

quote:

Originally posted by CharlieFourDocs:
well I do live in Stoke Newington...

Well someone's got to. *badda tish*

This all seems rather naïve & hypocritical to me.

Just because a guy decides to keep some chickens as a hobby and enjoy his own fresh produced eggs every morning for breakfast he’s been cast as a ‘fool’ who apparently ‘should be locked up’ for simply protecting something that he enjoys.

Just how many of you have ever seen the wholesale slaughter a fox causes in a chicken run, how many of them have seen a pen full of ducks attacked by a fox, some killed, some highly distressed and others half alive with blood over them, how many of them have seen a sheep giving birth only to have a fox come along and eat the head off the new born lamb, sometimes before its even fully exited the womb of the ewe. I’d like to bet none of youhave!!! Maybe if you had then you wouldn’t be quite so sympathetic to this VERMIN which, by the way, is increasing at an alarming rate in Britain.
Or maybe I am wrong, maybe its fine for poultry and other livestock to undergo a horrendous and prolonged savage death by such a vicious carnivore – that’s just mother nature, but just not o.k. for the dear cuddly little foxy-woxy because he looks cute. What about the distress & upset it causes to the guy who walks in to the pen to see the carnage?

The reason appears to be because unlike the person in question above the average arm-chair eco warrior is happy enough to trot off down to sainsburys & buy over-priced organic eggs [or at least that’s what the label says] or the cheapest eggs he/she can find which no doubt were imported from some East European battery farm [Environment issue, food miles, animal welfare????] simply because he/she has no interest or time or place whatsoever in keeping animals.
Why should a fox harm the A/C Eco, after all he/she lives in a semi-detached suburban house with 6ft of garden not big enough for one chicken let alone 20, the closest a fox gets is when it sets the security light off while turning out the dustbins. So because that’s their chosen lifestyle then it appears that’s how everyone else must conform and woe betide anyone who dares do anything different. Democracy? I should co-co!!! Dictatorship more like!!!

Just when will people realise the fox population along with other vermin both four-legged & winged is growing out of control, it has no natural predators and for centuries has been controlled – up until now.
It seems that having spent the entire evolutionary scale of time getting out of caves and we now have to be dragged kicking and screaming back to a time when foxes/wolves are again roaming amongst us.
Perhaps when they start to carry diseases such as rabies, or attack children playing in the ‘6ft garden’ it will then become time for, wait for it, the government to take “swift action”, hold an inquiry in to why it has occurred, appoint another band of welfare officers and waste millions on something that struck at emotions of the voters and should have been controlled a long time ago without the uninformed interference of the self-important Arm-Chair Eco-Warrior.

Martin,

I have some comments about your points

1/ So its the duty of the chicken owner to keep the chickens penned in - hardly the idea of free-range is it?

2/ Foxes pick the easiest prey they can find, if it happens to be chickens roaming around a pasture field during the daytime then they will take them *FACT*, its a whole lot easier than lying in wait for a rabbit!

I am here to tell you that contrary to what you MAY believe they DO take lambs, ducks, geese & chickens and will continue to do so unless c