Melecide, Lupicide, Felicide and Vulpicide -British Specialities

 

The one thing I heard again and again from people at museums as well as on wildlife groups was that they had never heard of Britain (I include Ireland here as part of the "British Isles") having three types of fox.

I have to make it clear since this caused much annoyance amongst certain 19th century naturalists, that when I write "types" I am not meaning species. We have yet to have DNA work carried out but are assuming (a dangerous thing) that all three types were of the Vulpes species even if, as with Ireland, they were a unique island species having been separated from Continental Europe for millennia.

It also needs to be pointed out that the wolves of Britain were also, again, unique island species but not subject to the dwarfism found in other island species. 

The current "wild tabby" that people call the Scottish wild cat bears no resemblance to the actual original wild cat. That cat was yellowish (with a grey phase) with stripes and naturalist Pennant dubbed it the "British tyger". It fulfilled the role left by the lynx (a cat that may well have survived into the Medieval period in Britain). This wild cat was big -often the size of the dogs used to attack them and that they were ferocious and not above attacking a man and dogs if pushed is documented.  This was a unique species to Britain (the Irish wild cat I deal with in some detail in The Red Paper Felids).

The wolf was simply hunted because they were wolves and the true extent of this lupicide is shown in the Red Paper Canids with forestry and woodland not burnt down or cut down for agriculture but to make the wolves more accessible. There are very rare remains of wolves in Britain but they await DNA testing.

When it comes to foxes the idea that killing them was anything but for or for money vanishes when you note writer after writer noting how efficient the system of vulpicide was. Adults or cubs each had a price on their heads that encouraged people to kill when they could. Add to this the fur trappers and the organised hunts and it is no surprise that by the late 1600s at the least foxes were being imported to continue hunting 'fun'. 

In the books and articles by the 'great sportsmen' of the 19th century it is noted how the Old fox types were becoming rarer and would soon follow the wolf into extinction. All very sad. So did they try to conserve the Old foxes? No, they continued to hunt them and lament how once gone their fun would be over. There was absolutely no secret in the newspapers, journals and 'sports mens' books they reported how foxes were imported and sent around the country and each "expert" had their own way of conserving these foxes in artificial dens and that meant preventing their game keepers from harming foxes. The foxes were protected and could take as many pheasants as they wanted so that they could be ready for hunting season. A very peculiar type of 'vermin control' (a phrase used only by hunts and supporters and meaning animals that were on the list to hunt). Even today there are artificial fox dens on hunt lands though the pretence of "vermin control" was thrown out a good while ago and they now proudly call it a 'sport'.

There is evidence that there were fox feeders even in the "Golden Age of hunting" (19th century). Pets being killed by fox hounds is nothing new and goes way back in time -as does the killing of small holders fowls. On one occasion the Master of the Hounds Dilworth lost control and a nanny picked a baby out of its cribbed just as the hounds got to it. The repercussions and outrage from the hunting community was loud. That a baby could have been torn to shreds? No, that it may have affected the 'sport'!

Melecide was also a thing for centuries and how badgers actually survived into the 21st century (where they are still being persecuted) has me stumped. Even the famous "sportsmen-naturalists" such as John Colquhoun killed badgers but then let them be, pointing out that they were harmless creatures -he did let his sons kill some for the 'sport' before forbidding any more badger hunts. As far as I am aware there were no imports of badgers but from Scotland and into the north of England regions were cleared on=f them by the late 1700s -again, bounties were paid.

Hares were wiped out as were deer in some areas and...more were imported from Europe which is something you do not read in wildlife books or see in the writings of naturalists simply because they do not carry out the historical research but repeat ad nauseum the same old dogma. Ignorance of history and facts create dogma that means the same ignorance is just accepted. Every British wildlife book you see on a book shelf from the 1920s onward is incorrect in many ways. This is, and has been, proven.

I have found one museum in England that has a specimen of an English wild cat. No Welsh museum has a specimen of its former native wild cat either. What they all have are "Scottish wild cats from around 1900" -hundreds of cats killed for museums that had to conform to a "Museum Type" which naturalists who had studied wild cats in situ declared to not actually be true wild cats. It may well be why the Natural History Museum (London) were downright obstructive on both foxes and wild cats yet asked, on three occasions, what the scope of my work was and the contents (I have the emails).

It is important that everyone, especially the youth of today, learn the facts so that we cannot make the same mistakes -which we are by designating foxes as "common" and unprotected while they die at a rate of up to 100, 000 per year due to shooting, poisoning, snaring and mass killing by cars. It is only via rescues and releases that foxes are still around because without the work carried out by rescues, if orphaned cubs and injured cub/adults were left to die we would now be concerned -or should be concerned about numbers. Foxes are great indicators of the local ecosystem and not just that but they take care of rats and mice and the more natural predation the less use of rodenticides which kill hedgehogs (supposedly a protected species), badgers (supposedly a protected species) as well as pets such as dogs and cats and even birds of various species.

One thing that must never be forgotten (fox fur farming in the UK being another)  is the fact that everyday ordinary people took part in the killing off of these species -wolves, foxes, wild cats and (almost) badgers. For 'fun', for money and very few stood up to protest (historical social aspects I go into in the two books) bur by the early 20th century more and more did protest and prosecutions for animal cruelty and damages caused  were not uncommon. There is absolutely no reason for people to not call for the halting of hunts in all their forms and "tradition" (ie the extermination of species) is no longer valid as an excuse. After all even pheasants for shooting season are imported into the UK now (chalk another extirpation up to 'sportsmen').

Another Rare Item of Wild Cat History Found

Yesterday afternoon I had to stop and take a deep breath. I finished work on The Red Paper 2022 Vol. I: Felids earlier this month (the 7th July to be precise). I had tracked down long lost images and reports and the one thing that really niggled at my brain was the fact that a certain wild cat shot and killed in England in the 1920s (there were six killed and in the same wild area) had vanished from a museum where it existed up until the 1980s.

Finding images and taxidermy going back to the early 19th century (my colleague LM does most of the taxidermy discoveries) but failing to find something that existed in a museum until so recently was...annoying.

I spoke to various old naturalists and though their memories are not as great as they used to be they did recall the wild cat in question and seeing it at the museum in question in  the late 1980s. Should I just put it down as a failure or ask the museum to double check and make sure it had not gone to another establishment? I gritted my teeth and asked whether it had been loaned out.

It had. The taxidermy had not even been registered at the museum in the first place which is why there was no record and since the 1990s had resided at another museum on loan...but forgotten).

I know have the photographs thanks to the museum in question and it has been added as an "addenda" at the back of the book. It may not be -there are questions only DNA will be able to answer- pure bred but it seems far more likely that it was part of a remnant population of British wild cats shot into extinction with only one being preserved -the others were simply dumped near to where they had been shot despite the shooters being aware that wild cats were supposedly extinct. The 'fun' of the shooting was what mattered.

As with the many other photographs that have not been seen publicly before (as with those in the Canids volume) there will be no "reveal" -which would make the whole purpose of the works redundant.

British Felid and Canid history has been re-written and that is far from bragging. Just fact.

Some facts and Home Truths About Feeding and Looking After Foxes (and wildlife in general)

 There was a breakfast time TV show note on fox feeding today. What I find revealing is that the anti fox feeding man brought up a report of a fox entering a home and biting twins. The couple involved were pro hunt but here is what the police wildlife officer at the time told me in a nut-shell:

A fox sneaks in through open French windows and in front/past the parents who are watching TV and past (as one policeman described them to me) "two very alert and semi aggressive dogs", sneaks upstairs, bites A baby leaves the way it came but the parents and dogs never saw it just heard the baby cry -and they 'knew' it was a fox did it because a few hours later they photographed a fox in the back garden.

Nothing done to check the story but the police went no further with it as they suspect one of the dogs

The lesson here for feeders is simple: NEVER EVER let foxes into your kitchen or home and if you feed occasionally do so away from the house because many people see a fox entering the house like a rat entering it -and they want it gone permanently.

I have posted before about treating foxes as wildlife and how people, feeders mainly, expect someone to jump in when they have a injured, sick or manged fox. Everyone immediately shouts out "The drops for mange are free!" and will then name the rescue they usually get the homeopathic drops from.

These drops do not just fall off of tree branches. They cost money to manufacture and postage these days is steep. And hundreds of bottles go out from a rescue each year. Well, it's free, right?

If you are a person that buys chicken legs/wings or other processed foods to feed your local fox you need to have something pointed out. Firstly, these are wild canids. People show photos of a "skinny little fox" they have started feeding. No -foxes are meant to be lean because that is how they are built and most foxes seen being photographed are overweight: put out some cut up fruit and maybe a chicken leg or wing every 2-3 days because if a fox picks up five chicken legs it is NOT "starving" -it may eat one but four will be buried and then forgotten because the next night you put out another five.

5 chicken legs/wings each night for 7 days =35

5 chicken legs/wings each night for a month =140

140 pieces of chicken out of which 30-35 may be eaten and the rest buried. That is a lot of wasted food and more than a family could afford -struggling families find it hard to feed their children and when you buy bulk from the discounted chicken freezer....

Eggs are the same. "Oh I only buy the cheap ones and give 3-4 a night" -it is almost a surreal joke how every spring gardeners clean out planters and start to dig up their gardens to find they have grown "subterranean eggs". One found five buried.

huge piles of food out on a plate in the garden so that you can get great photographs of the "fluffy fox babies" eating and get social media likes is wrong.

People who say they are struggling to keep buying the food for the foxes often get money donated to feed the foxes! Ones patreon account was doing quite well.

Foxes have a natural diet that has kept them healthy for millennia: frogs, insects -beetles, moths, cockroaches, wild rabbits, rats, mice and so on. Their system is built for that type of food. Looking at rodenticides and what they do I decided they would never be used on my property and do you know how rats were vanquished from my garden? The odd one went to cats but most were killed as food by foxes.

I have heard from different feeders that they spend £60-70 a month on chicken and eggs are extra on top. Do you realise how offensive that is to people who are on the poverty line? They struggle to put some food on the table while their neighbour spends all that money to feed a wild animal that does not need it.

Here is the even more offensive aspect of this; people can afford £60-70 a month feeding a fox what it does not need but if it gets mange its "How do I get free mange treatment?" You should not be getting free mange treatment that, depending on the severity of the case might or might not work. Check out and buy proper treatment that might cost you £20 =/- not look to other feeders to finance your buying mange meds.

We are supposed to be a nation of animal lovers. Utter bilge. People on fox groups are asked to do a couple of clicks to sign a petition to protect foxes and other wildlife from hunts and snaring and...it is a major struggle. You can go and click on "like" or type "beautiful" for a fox photo but to protect it you do not give a crap. You do not "love foxes" you just want to be part of a social group.

Rescues are now having to turn away foxes because they are overloaded and what do they get when they explain this? Abuse. "They can't be that good refusing to help a sick fox!"

Rescues are run by people who often work around the clock and they have to treat -by PAYING a vet- sick and injured animals. They have to clear out the crap (literally), wash and disinfect hutches and cages and make sure their charges can move about freely. I don't even want to think what each rescue has to pay out weekly let alone yearly.

These rescues are pushed to the very limit and each and every donation -money or food etc eases the situation slightly and the mental stress is high. "Oh good work" and "Well done" and also "You do great work for our sick and injured wildlife" is nice. Know what would be better? If you stopped spending all of that money on feeding foxes daily and donated some money or even food stuffs to your local rescue.

Rescues have closed because they can no longer look after injured wildlife such as foxes. A big City like Bristol has to rely on Secret World in Somerset! The City has no wildlife rescue/treatment centre.

I have been trying to help compile a list of rescues for the UK and Ireland and...wildlife and especially foxes are bottom of the list. Cats, dogs, horses and ponies but few deal with foxes. The UK is not geared up for looking after sick and injured wildlife and when it comes to foxes rescues cannot even depend on the many thousands of members of fox Face Book groups for support.

I know many people do not have the finances to help and many are careful feeders and some do actually buy meds when needed for foxes but at the moment fox rescues and wildlife centres are full and overflowing and without support in future the only people going to be busy are vets as they put down animals because no one can take them on. Remember; with mange a rescue does not take a fox in then give it a cure-all and release it a couple days later it takes weeks.

So PLEASE feed foxes sensibly and support your local rescue because one day YOU will need it and it will be gone.

Re-think HOW You Treat and Feed Foxes NOW Before It Is Far Too late!

Apparently this is "adorable Kate Beckinsale" with an "adorable" garden fox at her parents. This fox does not even know her but shows no fear.

(c)2022 Kate Beckinsale

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-11008613/Kate-Beckinsale-grabs-spot-tea-new-baby-fox-friend.html?fbclid=IwAR3CDxJwkFnUNtMErAMawD2rCEdtFMxgmxK3-vuLXJVr6wOH-jd66eKXe5o 

I see a dead fox.  Seriously, if this has been fed and treated as a pet in the garden and fed there then they are habituating it to a point that if it has cubs it will teach them how to beg from the humans -cutting out all the food that is essential for them to live healthy lives. It is also possible that if the fox has always been this way it may have toxoplasmosis.

This also helps create a bigger problem as millions of Beckinsale's fans are now going to see this and some are going to want their own "pet garden fox". A fox snatches food from some moron trying to hand feed it and it becomes "a problem fox aggressive towards humans and children may be at risk" and...

Bang

Bang

Dead fox(es) (pest controllers cannot tell one fox from the other so why not have a big safari shoot up? Vixen, dog fox -cubs? They can all be sold on for even more cash to taxidermists.

The fed fox goes to another home where it is not welcome or, perhaps "marks its territory" -problem fox.

Bang 

Bang

Dead fox.

These are not cheeky little pets but wild canids

That £60-70 + you spend buying foxes chicken legs and wings? Give it to a rescue or charity and leave the bargain food for people who desperately need it.

This is all going to back-fire one day and then the pest control people will be crawling all over your street and gardens to "exterminate (kill) the pests". Absolutely NOTHING you will be able to do about it; law is on the side of local authorities not 'local cranks' and the newspapers WILL jump onto the side of authorities.

Re-think HOW you feed and treat wildlife and especially foxes. If it helps make you decide (I get to read the post mortem reports and the photos are far worse)....

Over Feeding Foxes

 

Please, if you feed foxes do not overfeed. A couple of chicken legs will do a fox every couple of days to supplement its diet. They eat rats, mice (so if they do their job no need to get the Council in to put down rodenticides which can end up accidentally killing the fox.

In suburban areas where you find wild rabbits that is THE main feature of fox diets. Add to that the mice, rats, beetles and other types of insects as well as fruits and berries and a fox does okay during summer. They SHOULD look lean as that is how they are built.

During winter and then the cubbing season foxes may need their food supplemented -same with badgers. Every year I see people reporting digging up eggs from gardens/garden planters or finding rotten chicken wings/legs.

Cut back on the chicken legs (I see people buying in bulk while there are families that cannot afford a proper meal for their kids) one and add some fruit to what you put out.

Seeing a huge plate piled high with baked beans (lots of sugar), cooked sausages, sausage rolls, pies and pasties when it is not needed is pretty bad -again, there are kids who go to school because school dinner is their main meal.

Just take a deep breath. Cut back on how much you spend on food for foxes when a cheap weebox or canned dog food with a little mixer will do. Add some fruit. When you are feeding 2-4 foxes each night 2-3 chicken legs, assorted other foods you CANNOT plead poverty when it comes to getting proper meds for them (mange etc).

One person spends "over £70" on chicken legs each month and buys in bulk when supermarkets put them on discount TO HELP FAMILIES THAT CANNOT AFFORD THE COST NORMALLY. Another told me that she spends "well over £60 a fortnight".

These are NOT pet but wild canids. If something happens to you or you have to move what happens then? I have seen this so many times "I have fed the foxes breakfast and supper for five years now I have to move" which means the foxes could go to another house and then..."nuisance fox!"

BANG

BANG

Dead fox

This HAS happened so PLEASE think of just giving foxes a snack every couple of days because health wise it is better for them and the environment.

Our Museums are a mess and we need to EDUCATE people

 

The one thing I have learnt over the past three years while gathering data for the Red Papers is that most museums are pointless.

I have contacted natural history museums both local and regional as well as national regarding pre-1900 wild cat and fox full taxidermies or masks (mounted heads -why mounted heads? Wait until the book comes out).  

Not a single museum has anything other than post 1900 "museum type" (false) wild cats from Scotland.

English museums -I have found one with a 19th century wild cat killed in the SE and that is it. The wild cats were subjected to felicide from the medieval period until...well, they were wiped out and in some areas that may not have been until the 1940s (again, wait for the book). Slaughtered in England...no museum has a specimen of an English wild cat "only Scottish wild cat post 1900".

Welsh museums -"only Scottish wild cats post 1900"

So where are the taxidermies? Where are the masks?

Scotland and its museums -including the Royal Museum of Scotland only have post 1900 wild cats (after a few months its quite obvious I am not going to get images of them) and Nature Scotland has four in a property it is selling  which are early 1900s and so I explained that I would like photos of those to build up the data base. This is what I got.

No joke -that is the actual size of the image I received and I had to really stare at it and it still looks like a fox...but features are there to show it was a cat but its pretty useless. I wrote back and asked if I could get photos of the four masks and the response: "That's the only photo we have" -end of conversation. No inventory photos just something obviously cropped from a larger photo. Quite insulting really.

I then got contacted by the Highland Wildlife Park which, according to Nature Scotland, had wild cats taxidermies donated to it. Then I heard back from the Highland Park who told me they were only set up in 1972 (I knew that) and had no wild cats as taxidermy -perhaps the Royal Museum of Scotland....?

The Natural History Museum (London) with whom I have been in regular contact since the 1970s was a mess. It took over two years before even the vaguest response then their Mammal Group offered to let my colleague Hayley de Ronde go through their fox collection to see whether anything conformed to what we were looking at. We completed the necessary forms and arranged a date. All submissions received by the NHM. Absolute silence. Refusal to answer emails and even phoning got me to nowhere. Here is the interesting thing: I asked the NHM if I could get a photograph of the Kellas Cat they have had since the 1980s -the one used in the BBC TV Tomorrow's World feature on the cat. "We don't have any photographs of it" was followed up by a claim that they could not find the Kellas Cat specimen and, as with the fox Ms I was told that the NHM would be interested in knowing the contents and scope of the work. 

Repeating that for clarity: The Natural History Museum (London) has fobbed off myself and the British Canid Historical Society for three years on foxes and wild cats then said they would cooperate before refusing to respond to any email or enquiry and then claimed to not be able to find their Kellas Cat taxidermy and had no photographs of it BUT wanted to know what was in my papers.

I am not a conspiracy theorist and  as I noted, I wrote and corresponded with the NHM and Natural History curators going back to the 1970s. Subjects included the dead Canvey Island fish (big mystery it seems) from which it got a report from me which I discussed with the then curator NH and we agreed on the findings. When approached to identify "mystery" animals or even "unidentified sea creatures" the NHM have always been helpful and on one occasion I even identified an animal they could not.

Which beggars the question; why are they being so awkward to the point of being downright obstructive regarding Old type British foxes and Old wild cats?

I am what they call (embarrassingly for me) a "noted naturalist" and started out in this field in 1975 and specialised in felids and canids for well over 40 years now -I even have my name attached to technical papers and my work has been used by others over the years and that includes some non-UK researchers. Is it because they are aware that they are promoting dogma and not just dogma but people who have built their reputations by citing and pushing this dogma?

Or is it just that modern museum people are only interested in press and media attention and "getting on the telly" and have not really studied natural history just the dogma fed to them so why rock the boat?

It is almost scary that museums are getting rid of a lot of natural history displays and hiding them away to be more "hip and cool" or as Manchester Museum puts it: "We are closed to the public until February 2023 as we transform into a more inclusive, imaginative and caring museum"? 

In other words dumbing down to trends and entertainment where the "nasty stuff" is hidden away when it should be used to educate on the UK's horrific animal cruelty and trade -fur farms from mink, beaver, wolverine and foxes. Importing thousands of foxes each year to replace our own Old fox types that were hunted to extinction? Importing hares and deer that had been hunted into extinction in parts of the country? How about the hounds used to hunt otter, hares, foxes and stags and how they were allowed to be injured and die after being pushed to exhaustion? The same with horses in the 'sport'? Why was this allowed to go on in a "country of animal lovers"? Why do we not educate children and adults on the seals and, honestly, any and everything that flew, walked or swam that were killed in thousands each year until they became extinct or reached such low numbers that they were hardly seen here any more until reintroductions or legislation came in the protect them?

"Oh, how horrid of those people killing rhinos and elephants in Africa to sell parts in China!" It distracts from what people in the UK did -basically for fun or earn a few pence. There was no protection for the wild cat in the UK until 1988 -almost a hundred years after zoologists had declared the Scottish wild cat became extinct ion the early to mid 1800s. Wild cats are still killed. Perhaps legislation is needed to protect the dodo?

My London based colleague, LM, has the biggest collection of Old British foxes in the UK and these include two from the Colquhoun collection (dating to the early 1830s). LM also has two wild cats shot by Colquhoun around the same time. These make unique specimens because we can see what foxes and wild cats looked like just before they reached the extinction point -their DNA, if it can be extracted, would provide much information especially about the Mountain/Greyhound fox which -we can prove- was larger than a coyote.

Along with the amount of historical reference works we can throw out dogma and this is where the problems will begin. Every source is quoted and we have, after several years, enough photographs of early to late 19th century taxidermy to show just how wrong the 'experts' are. We can show what these animals looked like and that is not going to go down well especially those promoting the wild tabby as a "pure breed" wild cat. What they have been calling signs of a hybrid cat are in fact signs of a wild cat even if far removed from the Old wild cat.

Our museums are a joke. Perhaps donators to museums who enjoy a good spot of hunting are people that the museum purse holders do not want to upset? 

Museums in the UK should warn about threats to wildlife but they should also be teaching the current and future generations what has gone on in the UK not ignore or gloss it over. We are still allowing animals which are supposedly protected by law be killed off. The fox is now, through a sneaky piece of smoke-and-mirrors legislation not protected as it is a "common" animal. The facts speak for themselves that the fox is not a common animal and may well be facing a modern threat to its survival. But, you know, "just foxes" and which minister(s) accepted that foxes were common -someone with hunt friends or who likes to go on a weekend "jolly" with the hunt?

It is accepted in the UK that we turn a blind eye to what "our betters" get up to such as having someone drag out fox hounds, shoot them in the head then dump them in a skip (in 2021) and on it goes -even badger baiting in certain areas and open fox hunting gets a local blind eye from police. 

We need to educate people to teach them that it is not acceptable to turn a blind eye to animal cruelty or killing of animals for fun while criticising people in other countries. Anyone ever hear the expression "people in glass houses should not throw stones"? Educate in schools as well as in the establishments that are supposed to be the hub of knowledge and education -museums.

Fox Rescues and Wildlife Sanctuaries.

 

How do I spend my time after just completing two major wildlife works?

By continuing the work started in both. Oh, and updating my Bristol badger work and trying -trying- to find wildlife rescues or sanctuaries in Northern Ireland, Eire, Scotland and Wales compared to which England has "blanket coverage". In fact, the sanctuaries and rescues in England are few and far between and undermanned and severely under financed but they can offer help and advice. My job is easier in that I deal with the dead ones.

Yes, I do offer advice on foxes with injuries and looking unwell but I am not a wildlife rescue.

Along with Hayley de Ronde I am trying to compile a list of rescues so if you know of any in Eire, Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland -even any small rescues in England- then please let me know via blacktowercg@hotmail.com

A full list will be posted over at the Fox Forum when completed.

Thank you.

Foxes and Badgers and Why We Need To Educate People More (especially children)

 

When it comes down to it pretty things such as butterflies and moths, bees and birds win out over our larger mammals -the fox and badger.

When I first started out in 1976  there no real studies going on of foxes. A few naturalists had their regular spots to go badger watching and, of course, there were badger groups but when it came to any exchange of information or cooperation -I was on my own. By the 1990s I found that badgers in Bristol were no longer represented by a group. I wrote (its what we did in the last century) to all the contact addresses and found that even the local police wildlife officer had no details of who to contact.

Well, I ran some checks in the 1990s and had to get on with other work since watching wildlife does not pay. A couple of years ago I got to checking again -no one. I contacted everyone I could think of (there are any number of "wildlife groups" on Face Book and even three "main" FB naturalist groups. Nothing.

In 2021, faced with more reports of badger deaths they soon became a new project; because of Health & Safety and the fear of bovine TB, badgers cannot be picked up and subjected to a post mortem.  However, Zoe Webber and myself have a fantastic pathologist who will carry out PMs -in his garden in the open if  there are suspicious circumstances.

In the meantime I have established a number of long time badger areas in and around Bristol and that does not give us population numbers but it does mean that if a sow is killed by a car during cub season a search can be mounted to find the nearest sett in case. I am also recording badger deaths reported to me.

I was asked twice where the badgers are and on both occasions I responded (politely) that I would give my bank account details before even giving a rough idea where a sett might be.

The same applies when it comes to foxes and cubs. Last year I got five "photographers" who wanted to know where some fox dens were "especially with any cubs" -I told them to go take a walk. I see this on a lot of fox groups each year and the response from members should be "good luck" and that's it.

I never believed it until I found out from personal experience that what others were telling me was true; whether a small local group or a national one -hunt supporters are firmly entrenched and looking for the information they want.

We know cubs are snatched each year and we also know that there are 'sportsmen' out there who like to go and kill foxes and anything else they can and they display the foxes they have killed "at the back of the estate" or in a field -the law apparently is incompetent or blind since a fox can only be killed if it presents a threat to livestock -most of the foxes killed are just out catching rabbits. 

That written it is also surprising that the police do not take any action at the number of badgers "killed on the road" (nod-nod. wink wink) that are sold to taxidermy. In fact, taxidermists really should not be working on badgers due to the health threat but it seems selling a stuffed animal is more important than worrying about catching TB.

We know that there are people snaring in and around towns and cities and we have the PM reports.

When foxes are found dead the immediate scream is "It's been poisoned!!" and the fictional Bristol Fox Poisoner is at it again.  To clarify here is a pie chart showing causes of death so far found 

Note that poison is very low on the list. Of course, we lose a lot of dead foxes for a number of reasons; firstly, people report to the Bristol City Council Street Clean Team who are very efficient and they get to foxes quickly.  The Council (despite its claimed environmental credentials) will not cooperate with us in any way even though the post mortems are official. Initially, up until last July, the Council was promising a lot of assistance until rodenticide was mentioned and since then all emails are blocked -from myself and even Council allotment holders concerned about onsite use of rodenticides.

The other way we lose foxes is that someone will report that they have passed a dead fox on the way to work for four days. After the first day the fox will be too far gone for us to accept and put forward for PM. After 4 days -"maggot surprise".  People also think we are here to act as refuse men -"I have a decomposing fox needs removing" and "The Council say they can't collect the dead fox in my garden until Monday -will you collect it?"  

As we have no freezing facilities when it comes to Friday-Sunday (reports) we just cannot pick up a fox. They need to be kept frozen or cold until the official  lab opens on Monday. During a cold winter it isn't so bad but summer -no.

With social media groups you expect no cooperation as the main interest is "fluffy fox baby" photos and "Likes". It is even difficult to get members to sign online petitions to protect foxes.  Wildlife groups you expect a little more interest from since these are mammals in their city but despite a few people (who we are always grateful to) who pass on reports and so on...nothing. Otters, bats, birds and insects and even flowers all get the attention and at times it almost feels that we are fighting a losing battle but Zoe is dedicated and I am too stupid to quit after 40 years!

Where ever you are, whatever part of the UK -or Eire- look at your local badgers and foxes and learn about them. Officially, they are our largest (cat sized!) carnivores and they need all the help and protection they can get -and people (children especially) need to be educated about them.

Both Mss Completed Now To Find A Publisher with Guts

 Both Red Paper I and II Manuscripts have been edited and re-checked half a dozen times. PDFs created and those have been double-checked.

Now comes the hard task of finding a publisher with guts enough to handle them. Everything in each book is fully referenced so there is no doubting the factual basis of what is written, however, a lot of money is involved when it comes to breeding and release of Wild Tabbies and a good few people have built reputations based solely on dogma and the continuation of dogma.

Both books present a true version of canid and felid history in the UK and Ireland and because of this any reference needed for double checking is included -there are no statements that are just "my opinion" since my opinion does not count just the facts do.

I would hope that both books would make zoologists and naturalists sit back, take a deep breath and start re-thinking what they know and take the work further to correct the record.

We shall see.

"Why Do Foxes Need Protection?" and "Do I really Have to put my energy into clicking the mouse?"

 Hunts slaughtered the three Old fox types that were unique to Britain and they KNEW they were wiping them out a wrote about it but....continued killing until they were extinct.

Hunts also wiped out deer populations..

They also wiped out hare populations

They and their associates wiped out the Old wild cat.

Again, they KNEW they were doing this but "had" to have their sport.

But wait, I know what you are thinking: why do we still have foxes if they were wiped out?

Well, from (at least) the 1600s foxes were imported from Europe and come the 1800s there were thousands each year imported to keep the 'sport' going and hunts even managed and bred foxes (still do) to carry on hunting them which ridicules the statement that they only hunt to get rid of vermin (vermin is ONLY a hunting term). Oh, their importing brought us another gift: mange which was unknown up to that point in the UK.

Why, then, do we still have deer? Guess? They imported them from Europe.

And hares? Yep, imported from Europe.

All imported so that these 'people' could have their 'sport'.

I have no idea HOW badgers survived at all.

However, lupicide got rid of wolves. vulpicide got rid of our Old foxes and felicide killed off the wild cat across England, Wales and Scotland.

Before you say "They are rare but there are still Scottish wild cats" -no. We currently have Wild Tabbies that bear no resemblance to the original "British Tiger"/"Highland Tiger" and using historical records this is proven beyond doubt. In 1897 an esteemed Scottish zoology journal announced (after 30+ years study by a Mr Hamilton) that the true Scottish wild cat had become extinct during the early 1800s.

Now there are plans afoot to bring in European wild cats to breed with the non-existent "pure breed" Scottish wild cat to keep it going. Humans keep introducing wildlife, decide its "invasive" and then start killing it. Protected wild cats in Scotland are still killed each week.

Remember that badgers (NEVER a proven threat to ground nesting birds, hedgehogs, foxes and any other "vermin" are killed to protect the grouse and other "game birds". Game birds that are imported each year for the 'sportsmen' to blast away at, wound and kill.

It is protecting something they "enjoy" killing by killing other species that they also get "fun" out of.

They kill for fun which is why cubs are still snatched from cities and towns each year. Also there are the snarers and 'sport' shooters -very 'manly' to hunt something the size of a domestic cat -and they are not beyond that either.

"Why isn't something being done about this?"

Conservative Government is one answer. The other is that there are three FB groups with over 40,000 members and yet, when a petition comes along to save foxes or stop snaring and hunting it is a struggle to even get a very small percentage to click and sign a petition.

Sit back in your comfy chair and look at your fluffy social media fox photos. Then think of it with a massive bullet hole through it or even choking to death in a snare or caught waiting to have its brains bashed in. Any -ANY- excuse not to help by simply signing a petition is your supporting the hunts and I hope you do not have to face the situation where "little fluffy" is gone BECAUSE you could not be bothered clicking your mouse.

Can you spot fluffy in this photo?

Update on Stage 1 of the Hunting with Dogs Bill....WHY would any sane person even support the notion in 2022?

The actual page:

 https://www.scottishbadgers.org.uk/update-on-stage-1-of-the-hunting-with-dogs-bill/?fbclid=IwAR25Ec-vpjAHa0e9LM7jq9eDyyGQ-mviYFZcc7b64mc2wYUwxn_3yvuPQpA

Badger disturbance is still caused by the activities of some who use dogs in the name of ‘pest’ control and in mounted hunting in Scotland despite the latter having been illegal for 20 years.

The 2022 Hunting with Dogs Bill (HWD Bill) is intended to replace the Protection of Wild Mammals Act, to close off loopholes that allowed mounted hunts to continue hunting and killing wild mammals with dogs even though it’s been illegal for 20 years. Unlimited numbers of dogs at present can be used to flush unprotected wild mammals such as rabbits and foxes from cover but can end up chasing and killing the wild mammals.

The HWD Bill proposes all wild mammals be protected (except rats and mice), and a limit of 1 or 2 dogs. However, there remains the fear and distress during the chase, and the risk that the person cannot maintain control over the dogs.  If a wild animal goes underground to evade the dogs it would remain lawful to dig down causing protracted stress and fear.  

We are working with other organisations to press for the removal of the exceptions that would allow a limited number of dogs to be used to flush a wild mammal from cover or below ground, and other exceptions such as killing by falconry. 

Badger baiters and hare coursers commonly use the ‘excuse’ that they were after foxes or rabbits and so evade the law. These two species would in future be protected, which removes that excuse, however ‘ratting’ would remain as a potential smokescreen and licences could be issued that would allow the use of more dogs to ‘flush’ foxes, mink or rabbits.

Some members of the Committee have made the point that foxes have been killed year after year, but this makes no difference to lamb mortality or the fox population. If killing foxes makes no difference in the long run, is it either ethical or evidence-based to keep repeating this approach? Other approaches have been suggested including enhanced shepherding and flock guardian dogs, as used in other countries, that do not consider lethal methods as a first option. 

The SSPCA wrote to the committee to illustrate the severe injuries that badgers, foxes and dogs suffer when dogs are used in enclosed spaces.  

The Minister has agreed to consider the International Agreed Principles for Ethical Wildlife Management and to look at modernizing NatureScot’s Concordat: A Shared Approach to Wildlife Management which presently focuses on lethal approaches as a first option and is defined as:

‘the deliberate and targeted intervention by people to change the population, structure or distribution of wild species, particularly terrestrial mammals and birds’.”

The science-based evidence about lamb death rates shows that large vertebrates account for under 1.8% of the 10 to 25% of lambs that die annually, most die from birth-related complications and diseases, a complex picture as explained by the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission.

We will keep you updated as the bill moves into stage 2 this summer.

You can read the initial submissions of animal welfare organisations here:

Scottish Badgers

LACS

OneKind

SSPCA

Wild Animal Welfare Committee 

My response on the page where this was posted:

Firstly, badgers should not be hunted. Even the old hunting books by the 'great sportsmen' of the 19th century and before refer to badgers as creatures that create no damage BUT were fun to bait and hunt.

As for foxes there is still this false belief that the population is stable: it is not. During the 1990s, as a police wildlife consultant I spoke to a number of farmers and was shocked to find (and it is STILL going on) that stillborn lambs or dead sheep were tossed over hedges or fences to let the foxes clean up. I was told this by sheep farmers in Scotland, Wales and different parts of England. Biggest killer (proven by surveys over the years) of lambs is bad animal husbandry, diseases and various accidents including RTA.

Foxes will eat (as will crows and other carrion birds) dead lambs. Foxes are also observed eating the afterbirth as well as nutrient rich dung of yews.

We are in the year 2022 and still the same old rubbish is spouted -even the old 'sportsmen' ridiculed the idea that foxes were taking anything but dead lambs. Hunting with dogs is an obscenity -dogs used to tear up a fox or badger to 'maintain' the ecosystem is a joke.

With the British Fox Study set up in 1976 I have spent 4 decades looking at the question of badgers and foxes and sheep.

Only someone or body in the pocket of hunting would even consider the matter seriously. Yes -I have done farming and forestry.